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CHUECH POLITY: 



OR 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST, 



IN ITS 



INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT. 



t 



By J. L. EEYNOLDS, 

Pastor of the Second Baptist Churchj Richmond, Va. 



lUFf NON IfABCUNTUR C H RISTI A NI, — Tertul. Apol. 18. 



wrzhU-^u.. 



1^ 



EICmiOND, YA. 

HARROLD & MURRAY, BROAD STREET. 

1849. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, 

by Harrold & Murray, 
in the Clerk's Oflace of the District Court of the United 
States for the Eastern District of Virginia, 



I The Library 
OF Congress 

WASHINGTON 



PREFACE. 



Church Polity has become the absorbing topic of the 
Christian world. In common Tvith all thinking men, I 
have devoted considerable time to its examination ; and 
have made some progress in the preparation of a vol- 
ume mth the design of exhibiting the polity of the New 
Testament, and tracing the gradual departures from it 
in the churches which succeeded those planted by the 
apostles. The completion of the work, on the plan pro- 
posed, will require several years, even under circum- 
stances the most favorable to the prosecution of my 
labors. Perhaps I may not complete it at all, I have, 
therefore, ;jT.elded the more readily to the suggestion 
of my worthy friend, the editor of the Periodical Lib- 
rary, to prepare a smaller work, which is now sub- 
mitted to the public. May the great Shepherd and 
Bishop of souls bless it to the instruction of the flock, 
for which he labored and died. 

The Author. 

Mercer University, July, 1846. 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 

The favorable reception with which this little book has 
met, has encouraged me to prepare a new and enlarged 
edition, which is now offered to the public, mth the 
hope that it may contribute to the diffusion of correct 
sentiments on the subject of which it treats. 

J. L. Reynolds. 

Richmond^ Augicst, 1848. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
Statement of the subject, - . .. 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Sources of Proof, - • -^ - 18 

CHAPTER III. 
The Church of Christ, ^ - - - . _ 32 

CHAPTER IV. 
Particular Churches, - - - - 49 

CHAPTER V. 
A Church, a Single Local Society, - - - - 51 

CHAPTER VI. 
Members of a Church, . . - - , - 55 

CHAPTER VII. 
Rights of a Church, - ... - 67 

CHAPTER VIII. 
^ Independence of the Churches, 98 

CHAPTER IX. 
OflScers of a Church, * 105 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X.* 
Identity of Bishops and Elders, 119 

CHAPTER XI. 
Rights and Duties of Bishops, - . - - 127 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Deaconship, -------- 134 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Ordination, ------*- I40 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Baptism, 146 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Lord's Supper, - - - - - - - 203 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Ralation of Churches to each other. - - - _ 212 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Advantages of Scriptural Church Polity, - - 218 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Corruption of Scriptural Church Polity, - - - 228 



THE KINGDOM OP CHRIST. 



CHAPTER I. 

STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT. 

When Christ uttered, in the jadgment hall of 
Pilate, the remarkable words — **I am a king,"* 
he pronounced a sentiment fraught with unspeaka- 
ble dignity and power. His enemies might deride 
his pretensions and express their mockery of his 
claim, by presenting him with a crown of thorns, a 
reed and a purple robe, and nailing him to the 
cross ; but in the eyes of unfallen intelligences, he 
was a . king. A higher power presided over that 
derisive ceremony, and converted it into a real 
coronation. That crown of thorns was indeed thf 
diadem of empire ; that purple robe was the bad^'- 
of royalty ; that fragile reed was the symbol o 
unbounded power ; and that cross the throne o? . 
dominion which shall never ond. 

* John 18 : 37. 



2 CHURCH POLITY. 

This pregnant truth contained the fulfilment of 
the hopes which had cheered mankind through all 
previous generations. When our first parents had 
broken the covenant, graciously made with them by 
their Creator, and were expelled from the garden of 
Paradise, they bore with them the seeds of a glo- 
rious promise, which, scattered by their posterity 
among the nations of the earth, sprung up in the 
form of a general expectation of a golden age ; * 
and, entrusted to a particular race, inspired them 
with the confident hope that a deliverer would after- 
wards arise, who, assuming the position and respon- 
sibilities of the second Adam, would arrest the 
dominion of sin and death, and gather together the 
covenant people into a kingdom of holiness and love. 

The promise which was committed to our first 
parents, when they traced, with lingering footsteps, 
the path of their departure from paradise, was 
entrusted, as a special mark of the divine favor, to 
Abraham and his seed ; and, in its subsequent an- 
nouncement and corroboration, still further limited 
to Isaac, to Jacob, and finally to David, who was 
chosen of God as the favored individual in whose 
lineage should appear the Lion of the tribe of Ju- 
dah. 

This conception of the Messiah's kingdom was 
still further developed and amplified by the prophets, 

* Hengstenberg^s Christology, 1, p. 14-19. 



CHURCH POLITY. S 

a succession of inspired men, from Samuel to 
Malachi, who sustained a most important relation to 
the Jewish Theocracy. While to the priests were 
committed the direction and support of the ritual 
service, the external worship of Jehovah, it was the 
main design of the prophets to cherish and diffuse a 
theocratic spirit, by which the people might be re- 
tained in loyalty to their invisible king. In this 
elevated sphere were their functions discharged, and 
to this end were their labors directed. They may 
thus be considered the forerunners and prototypes of 
the ministers of the Christian dispensation.* 

In the discharge of their high functions, the 
prophets announced the coming of the Messiah ; 
predicted the time of his appearance ; and, grouping 
together the most striking and imposing characteris- 
tics of earthly sovereignties, presented a magnificent 
picture of his spiritual kingdom, and of the happiness 
which the nations would enjoy under his mild and 
equitable reign. This happy period would be 
signalized by the restoration of the long lost harmony 
between Judah and Israel, and the entrance of the 

* Der Prophetismus der Hebra^r von A. Knobel. Th. I. 
S. II. Baumgarten-Crusius' Biblische Theologic, § 6, 1. 
" The primary notion of a prophet," says Stillingfleet, 
" doth not lie in foretelling future events, but in declaring 
and interpreting to the world the mind of God, which he 
receives by immediate revelation from himself." Origines 
Sacree, B. II. chap. 5th. Stuart on the 0. T. p. 90, note. 



4 CHUKCH POLITY. 

Gentiles within the fold of the people of God. The 
kingdom of the Messiah was not to be limited by 
geographical divisions, nor restricted to a peculiar 
nation. The whole world was to be invited to its 
privileges, and all nations made to share in its 
blessings.* The most opulent earthly kingdoms 
had perished, and the most powerful dynasties been 
destroyed ; even Judah and Israel, though blessed 
with divine protection and guidance, had bowed 
their necks to the oppressor, and gone into captivity ; 
but the kingdom of the Messiah would never perish, 
and of his government there would be no end. The 
uttermost parts of the earth were to be its bounda- 
ries, and eternity the measure of its duration.f 

When the fulness of the time was come, Jesus of 
Nazareth appeared, and appropriated these predic- 
tions of the Messiah to himself. In striking harmony 
with the theocratic representations of the prophets, 
he denominated the dispensation which he introduced, 
** the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven ; ''{ 

* Jer. 30: 4, 9; Eze. 37: 24; Hos. 1: 10; Isaiah 11: 
10 ; and Dan. 7 : 14. 

t Twesten's Dogmatik, I. S. 323. Knapp's Theol. § 91. 
For a full examination of the Messianic predictions of the 
O. T. see Hengstenberg's Christology. 

X The word in the original, which is translated kingdom^ 
is equivalent to kingly authority ; and this expression, modi- 
fied according to the context, may generally be substituted 
for it. Dr. Dagg's interpretation of John 3 : 5, pp. 9, 23. 
The expression, kingdom of heaven, is a periphrasis for the 



CHURCH POLITY. ^ 

and claimed the honor and allegiance due to a divine 
messenger. Attesting his mission by infallible 
signs, and declared to be the Son of God with pow- 
er by his resurrection from the dead, he stood forth, 
in virtue of his divinity and the appointment of the 
Father, the head of that spiritual kingdom, of which 
the Jewish theocracy was but a feeble type.* 

The predictions of the prophets and the admoni- 

Christian state or dispensation, and is evidently derived from 
the mode of thought and speech common to the Jews. 
" The God Jehovah was their proper king, supreme over 
their state and nation. He governed them through the 
instrumentality of human regents and deputed kings. 

Their constitution was theocratic, to make use of a happy 
term, first applied to the subject by Josephus. Hence, 
the Israelitish state and nation are called the possession, 
and the peculiar people of Jehovah ; as Ex. 19 : 6 ; Psalms 
114 : 2. In the same way the later Jews applied the phrase, 
kingdom of God, or of heaven : vid. Schoettgen, de regno 
coelorum, (Hor. Heb. T. I. extr.) ; and Wetstein on Matt. 
21 : 25." Knapp's Theology, ^ 99. (1.) vid. Bland on Matt. 
3 : 2. Campbell on the Gospels, Diss. 5, part 1. 

The Lexicons have blundered sadly on this phrase. 
Tholuck, after an elaborate criticism on Wahl, Bretschnei- 
der, and others, gives the following as the true definition: 
" Christ designates, by * the kingdom of heaven,' the com- 
munity of those, who, united through his Spirit under him 
as the head, rejoice in the truth and enjoy a holy and bliss- 
ful life ; all of which is efiiected through communion with 
him." Biblical Repository, I, p. 567. Christian Review, 
IV., p. 380. Even this is a partial view. 

* John 4 : 25—26 ; 9 : 35, 37 ; Matt. 26 : 63, 64 ; 16 : 15— 
17 ; 27 : 11. 

1* 



b CHURCH POLITY. 

tions of Jesus were sufficiently perspicuous to have 
prevented the formation of erroneous opinions with 
respect to the nature of this kingdom. Christ de- 
clared explicitly that he claimed not to be an earthly 
monarch ; refused to be made king ; * and proved, 
by many incidents in his life, how little he thought 
of interfering with the civil concerns of men.f In 
immediate connection with the assertion of his roy- 
alty, he declares that his kingdom is not of this 
world. { And as if to relieve the minds of his 
disciples of all doubt on the subject, he predicted 
the destruction of Jerusalem, and the overthrow of 
the Jewish political state. || 

The history of our race has developed nothing 
more clearly, than the tenacity with which the mind 
clings to errors which are sanctioned by universal 
belief, and hallowed by venerable associations. Not- 
withstanding our Lord's unambiguous language, with 
respect to the nature of his kingdom, his followers 
continued, up to the period of his ascension, § deeply 
tinged with the Jewish notion of the Messiah ; and 
few of them rose to the elevated conception of a 
spiritual economy, which, obliterating all national 
distinctions, and swaying its sceptre over the souls 
of men, would dispense to Jew and Gentile alike, 

* John 6 : 15. f Matt. 17 : 24 ; 22 : 21 ; Luke 12 : 13. 
J John 18 : 36. 1| Luke 19 : 43. § Acts 1 : 6. 



CHURCH POLITY. 7 

its healino; and savin o; influence. Lons; after the 
disciples had attained and promulgated correct 
views on this subject, the old Judaizing leaven con- 
tinued to work. A large number of the early pro- 
fessors of Christianity, including several distinguished 
fathers, were persuaded into an expectation of the 
temporal reign of Christ ; * and Chilaism, although 
repeatedly convicted of folly and delusion, has 
subsequently appeared, at intervals, in the history 
of the Church, and numbered multitudes among the 
victims of its gross hallucinations. Its latest mo- 
dem development, Millerism, has just spent its 
force in our own country. 

As the reign of Christ has primary reference to 
the human race, the Messiah appeared in human 
form. By his mysterious incarnation, he formed 
the connecting link between the subjects of his 
kingdom and himself, allying his divine nature to 
theirs, and making them partakers of his own. 
Every real member of Christ's kingdom bears the 
likeness of its great king. As ** the habitation of 
God through the spirit," the divine and the human 
are united in him. It is also a necessary inference, 
from the principle which was stated at the begin- 
ning of this paragraph, that the instrumentality by 
which the kingdom of Christ is promoted among 

* Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte von Dr. F. H. Meier, 
§32. 



8 CHURCH POLITY. 

men must be material as well as spiritual, human as 
well as divine. These divine and spiritual elements 
in its organization, are not cognizable by the senses, 
and must, of course, be invisible. It is only in 
reference to its human or material elements that it 
becomes visible. Its local and temporal develop- 
ments are visible, but its efficient agencies and 
ultimate ends are spiritual. Wherever the phrases 
which designate the Messiah's reign, occur in the 
Scriptures, they refer to it under the one or the other 
of these aspects. The idea of a visible kingdom of 
Christ, as embodied in the visible church, is foreign 
to the letter and spirit of the New Testament.* 

The late Dr. Mason, in a workf which is distin- 
guished for the confidence with which he asserts his 
sentiments, rather than the conclusiveness of his 
reasoning, or the correctness of his principles of 
interpretation, maintains that by the kingdom of 
heaven is designed the ''external visible church.'' 
** This," he contends, '' can be but one, or else it 
would not be a kingdom, and the kingdom, but sev- 
eral. And this one must be visible, because its 
ordinances are administered by visible agency." To 

* E-obinson in his Lexicon, p. 130, has assigned this 
meaning to the phrase, but the texts he cites fail to estab- 
lish it. — e. g. Matt. 6 : 10, manifestly relates to the spiritual 
reign of Christ. Schleusner does the same. Pasor is more 
correct. 

t Essays on the Church New York, 1843, p. 18. 



CHURCH POLITY. 

prove his position, the excellent author relies upon 
several passages of Scripture, particularly those 
parables in which an analogy is suggested between 
the kino-dom of God and the usao;es of common life.* 
His argument is founded upon an erroneous view of 
the nature and design of a parable, and especially 
of those which he cites in support of his position. 
** The parables of the Saviour," as Neander has 
remarked, *' we may define as representations, by 
which the truths, relating to the kingdom of God, 
axe exhibited in a vivid manner to the eye of the 
mind, by means of special relations and analogies 
of common life, whether derived from nature or the 
world of mankind."! I^ was no part of his design, 
in any of them, to present an exact representation 
of the kingdom of heaven, considered as a unit, but 
simply to illustrate some particular truth connected 
with the christian dispensation. To attempt to 
press the analogy beyond its legitimate limits, and 
find a specific correspondence between each point in 
the narrative or fact and the Messiah's kingdom, is 
contrary to the most approved principles of in- 
terpretation. For illustration, it is simply neces- 
sary to refer to two parables, which occur in 
immediate connection with those which Dr. M. 



*Matt. 13: 24, 30, 47, 50; 16: 19; 25: 1 ; 28 : 19,20; 
John 20 : 21, 23. 
t Christian Review, vol. 8, p. 202. 



10 CHURCH POLITY. 

has cited. The parables of the mustard seed 
and of the leaven are intended to represent the dif- 
fusiveness of genuine piety, under two different but 
related aspects. There is but one idea in both of 
them, though clothed in different drapery, and relat- 
ing to different forms of development. The former 
indicates the diffusion of piety, or the extension of the 
reign of heaven among masses of mankind ; the latter 
refers to the development of the same principle in an 
individual. There is, therefore, an analogy between 
the mustard seed and the leaven, on the one hand, 
and vital religion on the other. 

If we proceed to examine the parable of the sow- 
er, upon which the author relies with so much con- 
fidence, we shall see that it is susceptible of a simi- 
lar interpretation. It teaches the important truth, 
that in the progress of the Gospel its pure and legi- 
timate effects would sometimes be mingled with for- 
eign admixtures ; that in those organizations which 
would be established for the propagation of the 
truth, spurious professors would obtrude themselves 
among the genuine subjects of his kingdom. Hu- 
man sagacity could not prevent this conjunction, 
but a separation would be effected at the end of the 
world. The parable of the net, to which Dr. M. 
also refers, teaches the same truth. 

Fortunately we are not left to conjecture here. 
Christ has given his own interpretation of the para- 



CHURCH POLITY. 11 

ble of the sower. He tells us '* tte field is the 
world," not the church; and **the children of the 
kino-dom" are distino-uished from *'the children of 
the wicked one." If it be urged that these latter 
are represented in a subsequent verse, as forming a 
part of his kingdom, since it is said that the angels 
shall '' gather out of his kingdom all things that 
offend," it is sufficient to reply that the royal au- 
thority of Christ extends over his foes as well as 
his friends. The former may appear in visible 
connection with his genuine disciples, but have 
never been recognized by him. Even if this para- 
ble were ambiguous, the many passages of Scripture, 
in which moral and spiritual qualifications are men- 
tioned as indispensable to admittance into the king- 
dom of the Redeemer, would be sufficient to deter- 
mine who are his real subjects.* 

Great stress is laid, by Dr. M.,t upon the pre- 
dictions in the Old Testament, in which the kingdom 
of the Messiah is described. In his judgment 
they manifestly refer to an external visible commu- 
nity. This view, however, betrays a very imperfect 
apprehension of the nature of those prophecies, and 
of just principles of interpretation. He sustains 
his position only by attaching a literal sense to 
figurative representations. The passages which he 

* Mark 10: 15 ; John 3: 3; Col. 1 : 13; Eph. 5:5; Matt. 
3 : 2 ; 5 : 3, &c. 
t Pages 8— 10. 



.12 CHURCH POLITY. 

has quoted are taken from the second part of the 
book of Isaiah,* one of the most splendid portions 
of the prophetic writings, in which the prophet, 
ravished with the glorious vision of the new theo- 
cracy, which the Spirit reveals to his mental gaze, 
portrays it in glowing language, and in imagery 
derived from the earthly theocracy, or the kingdoms 
of the earth. A literal interpretation is, here, out 
of the question. The kingdom which he depicts 
can be realized only in the spiritual theocracy of the 
Redeemer. With reference to chap. 60, upon ex- 
pressions in which Dr. M. relies with great confi- 
dence, it may be said, without any assumption of 
superior perspicacity, in the language of a distin- 
guished critic : — *' It can scarcely be necessary to 
remark, that the whole representation is figurative 
throughout."! But Dr. M. thinks that '' that light, 
which was to shine upon the Gentiles, and the 
* brightness' of that * rising,' which was to attract 
the * kings,' must of necessity be external." — p. 10. 
But can any one, after even a cursory glance at this 
chapter, 60, believe that this light is a material, 
visible li^ht ; that the darkness which covers the 
people is its opposite in nature ; and that kingr 
will actually behold this light ? It is clear that the 
terms are used figuratively — darkness being th^ 

♦ Isaiah 40-66. 

t Hengstenberg's Christology, yol. I, p. 438. 



CHURCH POLITY. 13 

symbol of sin and misery — light, of righteousness 
and happiness.* The chapter has no reference to a 
'' yisible church catholic," but simply describes the 
extent of the Messiah's reign, and the blessings by 
which it would be attended. 

This kingdom belongs to Christ as Mediator. It 
differs from his natural kingdom, not in the extent 
of its sway, but in the authority from which it is 
derived, and the object for which its government is 
administered. As God, he possesses an indefeasible 
right to rule the universe ; but as Mediator, he 
exercises his rule in accordance with the provisions 
of the covenant of grace, and administers the affairs 
of his kingdom with special reference to his chosen 
people. t* This kingdom has been committed to 
him by the Father as the reward of his obedience 
unto death. As that obedience is possessed of a 
retrospective efficacy, and delivers from guilt and 
condemnation the faithful who died before the advent 
of the Redeemer ; so his royal authority, which was 
first publicly committed to him at his resurrection 
from the dead, was exercised in the administration 



* Rosenmtiller thinks the figurative use of these expres- 
sions is so evident as scarcely to need notice. Per Iticem 
Hierosolymee oriturum felicem ejus statum significari, uti 
supra 45 : 75, 8 : 8, 10, vix monitu opus. Yid. Scholia in V. 
T. II. p. 747. 

t Dick's Theol. Lee. LXIV. CoJ. 1 : 15, 19 ; Heb. 1 : 3, 
14. 

2 



14 CHURCH POLITY. 

of his kingdom in every age. His incarnation was 
only the removal of his audience chamber to earth ; 
the visible manifestation of the divine sovereign ; 
and his ascension to heaven was his public corona- 
tion in the sight of the universe. 

The benefits of Christ's kingdom are restricted to 
its real, accredited subjects. But for the purpose 
of administering its government and promoting its 
interests, he has been invested with all power in 
heaven and in earth.* He sways his sceptre over 
the armies of heaven, the inhabitants of the earth, 
and the spirits of hell. All the agents of the universe 
are held in his hand, and execute his will. All will 
be made contributors to the promotion of his king- 
dom, and will grace his final triumph. 

The reign of the Redeemer is to be perpetual. 
Such is the description given of it in ancient proph- 
ecy and confirmed by Christ and his apostles, t The 
only apparent exception to the general tenor of the 
Scriptures, is found in 1 Cor. 15 : 24, 28. But even 
this passage, upon a more careful examination, will 
be found to comport with the representations which 
are elsewhere found of the perpetual duration of the 
Messiah's kingdom. The import of this passage 
seems to be, that God has committed to Christ the 



*Matt. 28: 18; Eph. 1 : 22 ; John 13: 3; Phil. 2:9, 
11; 1 Peter 3: 22; 1 Cor. 15: 24,26. 
+ Psalm 45 : 6 ; Heb. 1:8; Psalm 72 : 5. 



( CHURCH POLITY. 15 

government of his mediatorial kingdom and invested 
him with full power to carry it on to perfection, by 
** placing all things under his feet." His enemies 
oppose his progress in vain ; for he must finally tri- 
umph, and put down all opposing " rule, and all 
authority and power." When this glorious period 
arrives, he will present the kingdom to his Father, 
in all the amplitude and splendor of a redeemed and 
purified possession. His mediatorial work, so far as 
it regards this world, will be accomplished. He will 
then see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. 
But lest it should be supposed that he will then 
abdicate his throne, and resign the authority delegat- 
ed to him by the Father, the apostle adds — '' And 
when all things shall be subdued unto him, then 
shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that 
put all things under him, that God may be all in 
all." He will still act as the representative of the 
Father, and administer the government of his king- 
dom in subservience to the interests and happiness 
of his redeemed and glorified people.* 

* It has been supposed that the phraseology of the 25th 
verse implies the termination of the reign of Christ. " He 
must reign till, &c." But the word does not necessarily 
limit the reign of Christ to the event specified, viz : the 
subjection of his foes. It is said in Romans 5 : 13 — " Until 
the law, sin was in the world." But this does not imply 
that sin did not exist after the giving of the law. See also 
parallel expressions in Genesis 28 : 15 ; 1 Samuel 15 : 35 ; 



16 CHURCH POLITY. 

The reign of Christ is a subject of unspeakable 
dignity and interest. With it are connected the 
noblest prospects and dearest hopes of mankind. 
Sages have dreamed of ideal republics ; poets have 
painted the glories of a golden age ; and the human 
race, groaning under the curse of sin, and burdened 
with the accumulated sorrows of earth, have earnest- 
ly longed for a period of respite from grief, and a 
state of pure and permanent felicity. Under the 
dominion of the Redeemer, these hopes are fulfilled, 
these expectations are realized. With the conde- 
scension that marks the character of the king, and 
the unexampled benignity which induced him, at 
the cost of his own sufferings and death, to rear this 
kingdom, as an asylum for guilt and a refuge for 
sorrow, he invites the nations to its rights and 
immunities. The right of citizenship is proffered, 
without distinction of clime or country, sex or station. 
In the distribution of its favors, no regard is had to 
Jew or Greek, Barbarian or Scythian, bond or free. 
The possessors of uncertain riches are blessed with 
spiritual wealth ; and the poor are made rich in 
faith, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. All its 
subjects are the sons of God, the redeemed of 
Christ. Imbued with the graces of heaven, fum- 

Isaiah 22: 14; Psalms 112: 8; 1 Timothy 4: 13. The 
passage is similarly interpreted. Biblical Repos. 3, p. 749- 
755, and Am. Biblical Repos. 2, p. 443. 



CHURCH POLITY. 17 

ished with every thing necessary to their comfort 
and happiness, and favored with occasional glimpses 
of the glory in reversion, they possess, even on 
earth, a joy which is unspeakable, and a peace which 
passeth all understanding. And when the reign of 
Christ is fully consummated, and all his followers 
have entered the heavenly world, they will accede 
to an inheritance which is as infinite in value, as it 
is interminable in duration. It is a matter of vast 
importance, of imperative necessity, to every man 
that he be a member of this kingdom of Christ. 
Admittance is granted and the conditions clearly de- 
fined. The king himself has inscribed over its por- 
tal the solemn words, *' Except a man be born 
again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 



2* 



CHAPTER II 



SOURCES OF PROOF. 



As the kingdom of Christ Is a subject of pure 
revelation, it may justly be expected that every 
thing pertaining to its nature, and to the external 
organizations by which its principles are to be dif- 
fused among men, will be found in the inspired 
volume, in which that revelation is deposited. But 
in opposition to this obvious and rational inference, 
it is asserted by many that the Scriptures contain no 
specific directions with respect to the outward de- 
velopment of Christ's kingdom — no form of Church 
government.* If this assumption were correct, if 
neither Christ nor his apostles had left anything de- 
terminate, with respect to the earthly relations of 
his church, but committed its organization and man- 
agement entirely to fallible men, we should feel 
bound humbly to submit to his will, and acquiescing 
in the wisdom of the arrangement, should do what- 
ever human sagacity and prudence might suggest, 
to discharge the delicate and momentous trust cora- 

* Hooker Eccl. Pol. B. 3 J 2. § 11. So also Tomline, Pa- 
ley and other Episcopal divines. Burton's Hist. Church, 
p. 60. Neander, in Coleman's Prim. Ch. Introduc. p. 18. 



CHURCH POLITY. 19 

mitted to us. But happily for us and for the inter- 
ests of his kingdom, he has not imposed upon us 
this fearful responsibility. The Scriptures are a suffi- 
cient rule of faith and practice. The principles of 
ecclesiastical polity are prescribed in them with all 
necessary comprehensiveness and clearness. The 
founder of the Church has provided better for its 
interests, than to commit its affairs to the control of 
fallible men. *' Whatever ways of constituting the 
church may to us seem fit, proper, and reasonable, 
the question is, not what constitution of Christ's 
church seems convenient to human wisdom, but what 
constitution is actually established by Christ's infi- 
nite wisdom." * 

It would have been happy for the world if men 
had been satisfied with the simple form of eccle- 
siastical polity contained in the New Testament. 
Rejecting this, or proceeding upon the assumption 
that the New Testament contains none, they have 
attempted to trace analogies between Christ's church 
and the defunct forms of Judaism, or enorafted 
upon it rites and ceremonies borrowed from Heathen- 

* Edwards's Works, 4, p. 377. 

This point is very ably discussed by Dr. Smyth, in his 
learned work on Presbytery, ch. II., and on Prelacy, Lee. 
II., Note C. Lee. III., Vid. Dr. Wood's Lectures on 
Church Government, pp. 9-12. Haldane's View of Social 
Worship, &c. ch. 2. Milton's Reason of Church Govern- 
ment, ch. I., II. 



20 CHURCH POLITY. 

ism. From the close of the second century down 
to the present time, a considerable party have de- 
rived their notions of ecclesiastical polity from the 
Jewish temple and priesthood.* And even a late 
writer has supposed that its rudiments may be dis- 
covered in the Jewish sacerdotal institute. f A more 
gross misconception of the genius of Christianity 
than is implied in this Judaizing system, can scarcely 
be imagined. No two persons can be more unlike 
than a Jewish priest and a Christian minister ; and 
to argue from the prerogatives and duties of the one 
to those of the other is a gross paralogism. 

To model the church of Christ after the Jewish 
temple is to abjure our liberty in the Gospel, and to 
relapse into the weak and beggarly elements of 
Levitical bondage. '' To argue from a Levitical 
priesthood to a Christian ministry, and to prove the 
validity of the latter institution by an appeal to the 
former, and specially to compare the official duties 
of the two respective classes, with an assumption 
that they are parallel, is out of all question." J 

* Puncliard's Hist, of Congregationalism, p. 22. Camp- 
bell's Lee. on Eccl. Hist. Lee. X. part I. Gieseler's Church 
Hist, I. § 65. Mosheim, I. p. 144. Neander, p. 111. Kir- 
chenverfassung von K. D. Hilllmann, S. 35. 

t Spiritual Despotism, by Isaac Taylor, Sec. 3. 

J Stuart on the Old Testament, pp. 88, 388-392. Ed- 
wards's Works, ly. pp. 390, 594. "Wood's Lectures on 
Church Government, p. 13. Lord Bacon advised the re- 
moval of the offensive term priest from the English Liturgy. 



CHURCH POLITY. 21 

The unscriptural notion of a human priesthood in 
the church of Christ, is fraught with pestilent error, 
and has led to the most enormous abuses. It has 
substituted a new class of mediators between Grod 
and man, to the exclusion and dishonor of the one 
Mediator, the man Christ Jesus ; for, as Dr. Arnold 
has observed, '* the essential point in the notion of 
a priest is this : that he is a person made necessary 
to our intercourse with God, without being necessary 
or beneficial to us morally. His interference makes 
the worshipper neither a wiser man, nor holier than 
he would have been without it ; and yet it is held 
to be indispensable. This unreasonable, unmoral, 
unspiritual necessity, is the essence of the idea 
of priesthood.'' Viewed in its relations to the car- 
dinal truths of Christianity, no error can be more 
utterly subversive of the Gospel. We are not, 
therefore, surprised at the earnestness with which he 
combats it, and the indignation with which he de- 
nounces it, as '* the worst and earliest form of Anti- 
Christ."* It was this human priesthood *' be- 
decked in deformed and fantastic dresses, in palls ' 
and mitres, gold and gewgaws, fetched from Aaron's 

Pacification of the Church, Works I. p. 356. This argu- 
ment is, in the hands of Prelacy, self-destructive ; for the 
Jewish hierarchy was not prelatical. Smyth's Presby- 
tery, ch. XIII. Taylor's Spiritual Despotism, Sec. 3. 

* Arnold on the Church. Miscellaneous Works, pp. 
16, 18. 



22 CHURCH POLITY. 

old wardrobe, or the flamen's vestry," * that for 
ages presented Christianity to the world, under the 
motley image of resuscitated Judaism amalgamat- 
ing with Paganism. Kearing its colossal throne 
upon the earth, and stretching its powerful sceptre 
over the flames of purgatory and the prisons of hell, 
it robbed life of its last joy, and death of its only 
hope. 

The evils of attempting to graft Christianity upon 
Judaism, and effect an unnatural amalgamation be- 
tween carnal ordinances and a spiritual religion, 
appear, although in a mitigated form, in some of 
the practices which have crept into use since the 
age of the apostles. Infant baptism is, in its essen- 
tial idea, alien to the spirit of Christianity. Wheth- 
er it be considered the condition, or the privilege of 
church membership (according to the discrepant 
views of its supporters), it involves the glaring ab- 
surdity of making carnal descent the condition of 
admittance to spiritual blessings. How futile the 
effort to effect a coalescence between a right con- 
ferred by hereditary transmission and the privileges 
of a kingdom, in which citizenship is determined by 
entirely different qualifications, the subjects of which 
are ** born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." '' How 

* Milton of Reformation in England. Prose "Works, p. 1. 



CHUKCH POLITY. 23 

unwary are many excellent men," says Prof. Stu- 
art,* ** in contending for infant baptism, on tlie 
ground of the Jewish analogy of circumcision ? Are 
females not proper subjects of baptism? And 
again, are a man's slaves to be all baptized because 
he is? Are they church-members of course, when 
they are so baptized ? Is there no difference be- 
tween engrafting into a politico-ecclesiastical com- 
munity, and into one of which it is said that ** it is 
not of this world?" 

Where this practice is combined with the priestly 
doo-ma of baptismal regeneration, it conduces equally 
to sacerdotal power and spiritual delusion. Among 
the great majority of Protestants, its tendency is, to 
a great extent, neutralized by the assertion of the 
necessity of the new birth. This salutary truth ex- 
tracts the poison from the opposite error. Infant 
baptism possesses no natural affinity for the evan- 
gelical scheme. Appended to it, it is a mere hete- 
roo"eneous addition, which refuses and defies vital in- 
corporation ; and its only effect is to mar the heav- 
enly beauty of Christianity by an unnatural and 
earthly incumbrance. Carnal rites combined with 
a spiritual religion are as unseemly as would be 
wings of wax upon the angel Gabriel. 

Another class of writers find the original pat- 
tern of the Christian church in the polity of the 

* Old Testament, p. 395. 



24 CHURCH POLITY. 

synagogue,* and affirm that the Apostles did not 
introduce new organizations, but converted these 
Jewish assemblies into Christian churches. A fatal 
objection to this theory is, that we have not the 
slightest intimation of it in the New Testament. If 
it had been the design of the Apostles to present 
the synagogue as the model of Christian churches, 
it is incredible that they would have omitted to say 
so. It may further be urged that the synagogue 
was not a divine institution,! and could not therefore 
be adopted as the exemplar of Christian churches, 
without express divine authority. This authority 
Christ has not given ; the apostles nowhere assert it. 
We objected to the notion which transfers the Le- 
vitical priesthood to the Christian church, that it is 
a virtual repeal of the Gospel ; we object to this 
scheme, that it exalts a human institution into an 



* Vid. Vitring a de Synag. et Selden de Synag. Nean- 
der's Planting of the Chr. Ch. chap. 2. Gieseler 1. § 25. 
Whately's Kingdom of Christ, pp. 78-80. Coleman's Prim. 
Ch. chap. 2. Smyth's Presb. B. 1. ch. 13. 

f The divine institution of the synagogue is pleaded by 
Dr. Smyth and others, from the expression in Psalm 74 : 8. 
"God's synagogues." But at the time this Psalm was 
composed, synagogues were not in existence , The Hebrew 
is more properly rendered, "the places of assembly," al- 
luding to Ramah, Bethel, &c., the seats of the prophets 
(Gesen. Heb. Lex. p. 55i) ; or the plural may be used, as 
Stuart thinks (0. T. p. 72), for the singular, and the allu- 
sion be to the temple. 



CHUKCH POLITY. 25 

institution of Christ. Neither of them derives any 
warrant from the word of God. 

We look in vain for the model of a church among 
the Jews. It was foreign to their modes of concep- 
tion ; nor is there a word in their language by which 
the idea can be expressed. They had words, or 
phrases, designating an assembly for religious pur- 
poses, and the place or house where such an assem- 
bly was convened, but none which embodied the 
conception of a church as distinguished from a con- 
gregation, of an organized body composed of pro- 
fessedly pious persons, professing spiritual qualifica- 
tions, and combined for the promotion of purely 
spiritual purposes. * The idea of a church is 
peculiar to Christianity. *'This system presents 
the only true form of a church. The Jews had no 
distinct organization which could, with propriety, be 
denominated a church. Much less is any associa- 
tion under other forms of religion, entitled to this 
appellation." t 

It is well known to all who have examined the 
subject of ecclesiastical polity, that the testimony of 
the Fathers has been appealed to as competent 
authority. But if the Bible be our directory, in 



* Josephs, a learned Jew, in his English and Hebrew 
Lexicon, London, 1834, under the word church, gives phrases 
which indicate only the house used for religious purposes. 

t Coleman's Christian Antiquities, eh. 1, § 3. 



26 CHURCH POLITY. 

• 

faith and practice, why need we apply to other 
sources for information ? Should it be found, upon 
examination, that the testimony of the Fathers con- 
flicts with the practice of the Apostles, it must be 
rejected. The form of church government, taught 
in the Scriptures, must be ascertained, before we 
can determine how far this testimony is entitled to 
credit. Upon Protestant and Scriptural principles, 
no other course is admissible. 

The advocates of tradition proceed upon the as- 
sumption that the Scriptures do not contain a reve- 
lation of all that is necessary for '* doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness ; that the man of God may be perfect, thoi> 
oughly furnished unto all good works;" and in 
support of it thay refer to doctrines and practices 
which have been very generally received, but are 
not taught or enjoined in the word of God. Thus, 
Klee, a Roman Catholic, says that '* many things in 
the ethical and liturgical practice of the church are 
retained which rest only on traditional grounds, as 
the lawfulness and necessity of infant baptism, the 
validity of heretical baptism, &c." * When we 
consider how far the Puseyites have advanced in 
their approach to Rome, we are not surprised to find 

♦Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, I. S. 114. Compare 
Hooker's Eccl. Pol. B. I. ch. 14. Townsend's N. T. P. 10. 
Note 9. 



CHURCH POLITY. 27 

one of them denouncing, as " a shallow and irre- 
ligious assumption,'' the cardinal principle of Pro- 
testantism, '' that whatever God designs his creatures 
to believe or perform, he has plainly. taught and de- 
clared." * A more learned and candid advocate of 
Episcopacy has said : *' The claim of Episcopacy to 
be of divine institution, and therefore obligatory on 
the church, rests fundamentally on the one ques- 
tion — Has it the authority of Scripture ? If it has 
not, it is not necessarily binding." t 

The majestic simplicity of the New Testament, its 
revelation of pure and lofty truths, and its entire 
freedom from folly and fanaticism, stamp it with the 
impress of divinity, and attract the admiration of 
minds not yet prepared to acknowledge its heavenly 
origin. But, in passing from its pages to those of 

* Marshall's Notes on the Episc. Pol. New York, 1844, 
p. 16. Of the accuracy with which this writer states facts, 
the reader may judge by the following statements : " The 
latest improvement upon the Baptist heresy is Mormon- 
ism." p. 345. " The great body of Methodists, following 
Dr. A. Clarke, have departed from the true doctrine of the 
Trinity." p. 346. These statements are made upon the 
highest ** American authority." "We may smile at the easy 
credulity of this " curate of Swallowcliffe ; " but what shall 
we say of the Rt. Rev. Editor, Jonathan M. Wainwright, 
D.D., who endorses these and similar " old wives' fables ? " 

fDr. Onderdonk's Episcopacy, tested by Scripture, p 1. 
Barnes' Reply, p. 99. See also Carson's refutation of 
"Whately's illogical assumption with respect to the burden 
of proof, in his work on Baptism, ch. 1. 



28 CHURCH POLITY. 

the early Christian fathers, we are conscious of an 
immense descent. The transition from Paul and 
John to Barnabas and Hermas, is felt as a departure 
from the teachings of inspired Apostles to the puerile 
conceits of a Judaizer and the drivelling of a dotard. 
It would be vain, if it were necessary, to attempt to 
supply the deficiences of the former by the latter. 
The hand of Providence has fixed a " great gulf 
between the inspired and the uninspired Christian 
writings, and thus placed its condemnation upon 
those who are so *' exceedingly zealous of the tradi- 
tions" of the Fathers. 

If the Scriptures were deficient or obscure, and 
the inquirer after truth were, therefore, driven to 
the Fathers, even that refuge would fail him. Their 
testimony is suspicious, partial, and contradictory ; 
their works are corrupted and interpolated; and 
they themselves refer him back to the Scriptures as 
the only authoritative guide.* 

To sustain the authority of the Fathers, and give 
plausibility to the scheme which rests the polity of 

* Goode's Divine Rule, chaps. 5-7. Daille on the right 
use of the Fathers. Smyth's Pres. and Prel. pp. 314-328. 
Apostol. Succ. p. 79. Knapp's Theology, § 7. Dwight, 4, 
pp. 239-242, Neander's Church History, p. 407. Baum- 
garten Crusius, Compendium der Dogmengeschichte, Leip- 
zig, 1840, § 20. Milton's Animadv. on Rem. Def. Sec. 4. 
Jortin says of Antiquity (or the Fathers), " she is like Bri- 
arius, and has a hundred hands, and these hands often clash 
and beat one another.*' Eccl. Hist. 2. p. 57. 



CHURCH POLITY. 29 

the churches upon their testimony, it is sometimes 
affirmed that we are indebted to them for our knowl- 
edge and reception of the books which compose the 
sacred canon ; and the inference thence derived, that 
if their testimony is valid in the one case, it is equally 
so in the other. But this is to confound things 
which are manifestly different. In settling the pre- 
liminary question, as to what books are canonical, 
we may refer to the testimony of the Fathers ; but 
in order to ascertain what those books contain, we 
must consult the books themselves. The testimony 
of these early witnesses is to be calmly weighed, 
carefully scrutinized, and subjected to the rules 
which regulate our estimate of historical evidence. 
They are simply the media of proof, the means by 
which we arrive at a knowledge of the facts by 
which the question is to be decided. '* The church 
of Jesus Christ, in the present day, does not believe 
in the divine authority of those books which it ad- 
mits to be canonical, because the ancient church re- 
garded them in the same light ; but because there is 
satisfactory evidence that they were composed by 
men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost."* 

* Arguments of Romanists Discussed and Refuted by 
Rev. Dr. Thomwell, p. 213. The testimony of the Fathers 
is the medium per quod, not the me^dium propter quod. 
Twesten's Vorlesungen, I. S. 433. Pietet Theol. Lib. 1. 
cap. IX. 4. Chillingworth^ ch. 2. Answer, § 25. 

3* 



80 CHURCH POLITY. 

The advocates of prelacy have not failed to 
charge upon other pedobaptists the inconsistency 
of admitting infant baptism upon the testimony of 
the Fathers, and rejecting the claims of episcopacy 
and the apostolical succession, although sustained 
upon the same foundation. From this dilemma 
Dr. Woods would extricate himself, by denying 
that it presents a fair statement of the case. *' The 
chief historical argument in favor of infant Baptism 
does not," in his view, " arise from the fact, that 
the practice did at length generally prevail in the 
early ages ; but from the testimony of the Fathers, 
that it was received from the apostles."* But the 
historical argument here is extremely defective. 
Origen is the first of the Fathers who uses such 
language,! and he lived A. D. 185 — 254. His 
assertion, at so distant a remove from the time of 
the apostles, possesses little weight ; especially as he 
ascribes to them, in the same connection, the doc- 
trine that baptism cleanses from original sin. 

I find no authority for this custom, either in the 
Scriptures, or the earliest Christian documents. If 
the baptism of infants be an ordinance of Christ, it 
must be plainly taught, by precept or example, in 

* Lectures on Church Government, p. 61. 

t Ecclesia ab apos tolls traditionem accepit etiam parvulis 
baptismum dare. Sciebant illi . . . quod essent in omnibus 
genuinae sordes peccati, quae per aquam et spiritum abluf. 
deberent. Orig. In ep. ad Rom. 0pp. T. IV. p- 5%b. 



CHURCH POLITY. 31 

the New Testament. If it be not so taught, to at- 
tempt to sustain it by an appeal to historical evi- 
dence, is to abandon the fundamental principle of 
Protestantism. 

The period seems to be rapidly approaching when 
the Christian world must choose between the Scrip- 
tures and the traditions of men. If ever the man 
of sin is successfully assailed in his strong hold, it 
must be by the sword of the Spirit. The Bible is 
our only reliable armory. Equipped and supplied 
from this source, the man of God need not fear an 
encounter with the hosts of darkness. But if, re- 
jecting the panoply which divine munificence has 
supplied, he resorts to earthly means of defence, he 
will fall in the struggle, oppressed with the mortify- 
ing consciousness that his unhallowed weapons have 
only precipitated his defeat. Like Milton's angels, 
he will be bruised and crushed beneath the weight 
of his own armor : 

" Their armor helped their harm, crushed in and bruised 
Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain 
Implacable, and many a dolorous groan." 

Paradise Lost, YI., 658. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



The word Churcli (in the original Greek of the 
New Testament, ekklesia), means a congregation, 
or assembly ; and the character of the assembly, to 
which it is applied, is to be ascertained by the use 
of the term in each particular instance. In its 
sacred use, it is confined to two meanings, referring 
either to a particular local society of Christians, or 
to the whole body of God's redeemed people.* Of 
the latter meaning of the word, the following are 
instances : 

Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it. 
Eph. 5 : 25. Gave him to be the head over all 
things to the Church, which is his body. Eph. 
1 : 22, 23. The general assembly and Church of 

* Campbell's Lectures on Eccl. History, Lee. 6, p. 100, 
105, 106. King's Prim. Church, chap. 1. [It is sometimes 
asserted that Lord King subsequently renounced the views 
maintained in this book, Vid. Rose's note to Neander's 
Church History, Pref. p. 4. But the evidence is not satis- 
factory. Vid. Punchard on Congregationalism, p. 147.] 
Haldane's View of Social Worship, &c., ch. 5, § 1. Dagg's 
Essay on Communion, chap. 3, § 1. Dr. Johnson's Gosp. 
Developed, ch. 2. Barrow, Wks. (Am. Ed.) III. 312. 



CHURCH POLITY. 33 

the first born, which are written in Heaven. Heb. 
12 : 23. 

It is this community of believers, the household 
of God, the whole family in heaven and earth, that 
constitutes the Holy Catholic Church, the kingdom 
of Christ in its internal development. It is one, 
and indivisible. Its members are known, certainly, 
only to Omniscience. Ordained unto eternal life 
before the foundation of the world, and in due time 
called, justified, sanctified, and glorified, they con- 
stitute the only real spiritual body of Christ, the 
fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Those who are 
members of this Church, and those alone, are inter- 
ested in the benefits of the atonement, share the 
gifts of the Spirit, and enjoy the bliss which apper- 
tains to the communion of saints. Beyond its limits 
there is no salvation.* 

The conception of the spiritual unity of the 
Church, which can be realized only by a living 
communion of all its members with the head, is 
clearly discerned in the instructions of Christ and 
his apostles, and is a glorious and precious truth. 
But it was soon misapprehended and perverted. 
The attempt was made to realize this unity in an 

* The best definition of the Church of Christ, is that 
given by Augustine, and incorporated by Calvin in his Cat. 
Eccl. Genev. Quid est ecclesia ? Corpus ac Societas 
fidelium quos deus ad vitam aeternam prsedestinavit. See 
also Inst. IV. I. n. 2. 7. Pictet Theol. Art. XXVII. 7. 



34 CHURCH POLITY. 

outward church, possessed of an external visible 
organization, and embracing, among its members, 
all the professors of Christianity in the world. The 
unity of the Spirit, which consists in faith and love, 
was merged in a unity of outward form.* The 
radical error of this theory consists in the assumption 
of an external visible union of Christians as the 
starting point from which to arrive at a real spiritual 
unity ; whereas the reverse is the proper order of 
procedure. The primary and essential union of 
Christians consists in their connexion with a common 
head, and the possession of a common spirit ; and 
particular societies of Christians can approximate to 
this unity, only in proportion as they realize in 

* Neander's Cliurch Hist. p. 120. Mtinsclier Dogmensge. 
[Ed. Von Coin.] } 34. Meyer, § 25. The name, holy Cath- 
olic Church, first occurs in the epistle of the Church of 
SmjTma, concerning the martyrdom of Polycarp, written A. 
D. 169. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. IV. 15. The earliest patron 
of the notion was Irenaeus, (f 201) : it was fully developed 
by Cyprian, (f 258,) in his book De unitate ecclesiae. Having 
referred to the history of Eusebius, I take this opportu- 
nity to caution the reader against trusting too implicitly to 
Cruse's translation of the work, published by Rev. R. Da- 
vis, Phila. It was made under Episcopalian influence, and 
is deeply tinged with it. Some of its errors have been no- 
ticed in Dr. Smyth's Confirmation Examined. Note A. p. 
199. The expression Catholic Church, is also found in the 
larger collection of the epistles of Ignatius. Ep. ad Smyrn. 
c. 8 (t 107). But the passage is not considered genuine. 
MOnscher, § 34. 



CHURCH POLITY. 35 

themselves the harmony and sympathy which dis- 
tinguish the body of Christ.* 

The minds of men had no sooner become posses- 
sed of this figment of a visible .Catholic Church, 
than they saw the necessity of seeking for some 
visible head. This was indispensable to its com- 
pleteness. Here we have the germ of the papa 
system, which has, at least, the merit of consistency ; 
for the necessity of a visible head is a logical deduc- 
tion from the doctrine of a visible Catholic Church. 
*' Without a visible head," observes a distinguished 
Koman Catholic, '* the whole view which the Catholic 
Church takes of herself, as a visible society repre- 
senting the place of Christ, would have been lost, 
or rather would never have occurred to her. In a 
visible church, a visible head is necessarily in- 

cluded.^t 

The doctrine of a visible Catholic Church, al- 
though it seems to have been rejected by Luther, 
has been maintained by a large number of Protest- 
ants, J and even some of the advocates of Congre- 

* Marheineke Grundleliren der Cliristl. Dogmatik. S. 445. 
Nitzch. System der Christl. Lelire, § 188. 

t Mohler's Symbolism, p. 377. Barrow, Unit. ch. YIII. 4. 

J Hill's Divinity, p. 695. Dick's Theology, 2, p. 456. 
Smyth's Ecclesiastical Catechism, p. 11, with a copious 
citation of authorities. " The Church," says Ogilby, " is 
Christ's mystical body. This body of Christ is a visible 
body, made of many visible parts," Lectures on the Church, 
p. 13, New York, 1844 



86 CHURCH POLITY. 

gationalism have, witli singular inconsistency, em- 
braced the same view.* The subject demands, 
therefore, a thorough discussion. I am happy to 
say that Dr. Dagg, who has devoted much reflec- 
tion to this topic, has, at my solicitation, furnished 
me with his views ; and they are here inserted as a 
valuable and instructive addition to this work. 

The question Respecting the existence of a Visible 
Church Catholic, may be regarded, 1, as real, — 2, 
as verbal. 

I. As real. The real question may be stated 
thus : Do all who profess the true religion constitute 
one organized society ? 

The following doctrine is maintained by Dr. 
Mason : There exists in the world a great society, 
composed of all who profess the true religion. This 
society is so organized that the parts are united in 
mutual dependence, and furnished with a principle 
of living efficiency in one common system, so as to 
bring the strength of the whole to operate on every 
part, or through all the parts collectively, as oc- 
casion may require. This society possesses the 
power of self-preservation, which includes, 1. A 
power of commanding the agency of any particular 
member ; 2. A power of combining the agency of 
all her members ; 3. A power of providing for her 
nourishment and health; 4. A power of expel- 

* Walker's Church Discipline, p. 10, where he says the 
term Church, in Matt. 16 : 18, '' appears to include, gene- 
rally, such professed believers as hold the Christian faith 
a- J -"M-sMitice wicorrupted, throughout the world." 



CHUKCII POLITV. 37 

ling iuipurities and corniptions This society, with 
a regular succession of members, has existed visibly 
and publicly, from the days of Abraham to the 
present time.* 

The following weighty objections lie against this 
doctrine : 

1. It does not accord with the facts of history. 
All the professors of Christianity are not now so 
united, and it is certain that they have not been for 
ages past. 

2. It favors the pretensions of the Roman Church. 
If any such society existed in the middle ages, its 
seat of power must have been at Rome. 

3. The powers attributed to this society are in- 
consistent with the individual and personal respon- 
sibilities of its members. A power to command 
implies an obligation to obey. Now either the 
power must be exercised with infallible rectitude, 
or the members are bound to oppose it, and to obey 
God rather than men. 

4. The Church organizations of primitive Chris- 
tians did not extend beyond single congregations, 
which existed and acted independently of each other. 
Membership was voluntary, and no power was 
claimed to interfere in any wise with the individual 
and personal responsibility of any member. ** To 
his own master he standeth or falleth." 

5. The combination of individuals or of churches, 
for the purpose of exercising any controlling power 
whatever over the consciences of men, is the germ 
and spirit of Anti-Christ. 

The doctrine to which these objections are opposed, 

* Mason's Essays, pp. 5, 195, and elsewhere. 

4 



38 CHURCH POLITY. 

is a corruption of the Scripture doctrine, respecting 
what theological writers have called the Invisible 
Church. The saints in heaven, with all regenerate 
persons on earth, form a society which is called, in 
the language of inspiration, the Body of Christ, the 
Church of Christ, the People of Christ, the Flock 
of Christ, &c. Eph. 5 : 23-27 ; Matt. 1 : 21 ; 1 
Peter 2:9; Luke 12 : 32 ; John 10 : 16 ; Heb. 
12 : 23. The oneness of this body does not depend 
on any external organization, but arises from a 
spiritual union of all its members to Christ. It is 
compacted, not by any external force, nor by pow- 
ers conferred on the members collectively, for the 
purpose of consolidation and control, but by that 
which every joint supplieth. Love is the cement 
of the parts, and the principle of living efficiency, 
growth and strength which pervades the whole. It 
maketh increase of itself in love. Membership in 
this society is, in the highest sense, voluntary, and 
all controlling power belongs, not to the body, but 
to the living head, Jesus Christ. 

A few texts of Scripture, in which the term 
Church is used, have, by a mistaken interpretation 
of them, been supposed to favor the doctrine of a 
Visible Church Catholic. Dr. Mason refers to six 
as proof texts of this doctrine. It is a very re- 
markable circumstance that three of these six texts 
refer to a period in the history of Christianity, when 
no church of external organization existed, but that 
which was at Jerusalem. This was not a Catholic 
Church as distinguished from a particular Church ; 
and therefore these texts fail to prove anything in 
the question, except the difficulty of finding support 
for the doctrine in the word of God. The three pas- 



CHURCH POLITY. 39 

sages are these : *' The Lord added to the Church 
daily such as should be saved " Acts 2 : 47. *' Saul 
made havoc of the church " — Acts 8:3. • ' I per- 
secuted the Church of God" — 1 Cor. 15 : 9. 

It is due, however, to the scheme of Dr. M., to 
say that it finds a Visible Church Catholic in exist- 
ence at the period to which these texts refer : and 
it is due to the cause of truth to show that, in this 
very particular, the scheme involves incredible 
absurdity. He says, (pages 7 and 8,) '* The Jews 
were not cut off till after the commencement and 
establishment of the new dispensation ; that is, till 
after the Gentiles were taken in." According to 
this view of the subject, the excision of the Jews 
did not take place until after the conversion of 
Cornelius. Of consequence, the Jewish nation 
continued to be the Visible Church Catholic during 
the period to which the texts above quoted refer ; 
and if they signify what they are cited to prove, 
their correct interpretation is as follows : " The Lord 
added to the Church ; " i. e. to the Jewish nation. 
*' Saul made havoc of the Church ; " i. e. of the 
Jewish nation. " I persecuted the Church ; " i. e. 
the Jewish nation. Comment is unnecessary. 

Two causes have favored the misinterpretation of 
Scripture on this subject. 

The first of these is an ambiguous use of the 
epithets visible and invisible. The saints in heaven 
are invisible to mortal eyes ; but that part of the 
Church of the first born whieh still remains on 
earth, instead of being invisible, is a city set on a 
hill, that cannot be hid. The Saviour enjoined on 
his followers to let their light shine before men, that 
their good works, not their church organization, 



40 CHURCH POLITY. 

should be seen. The saints are distinguished from 
the ungodly world by their holiness of life ; they 
need not a mark in their right hand or in their 
forehead, in order that their characters may be 
known and read of all men. 

From the confounding of visibility with organ- 
ization originated the remark of Dr. M. ; * " Nor 
is it to be imagined that he (Saul) was able to 
pick out the elect and persecute them." The ob- 
jects of persecution were not rendered visible to 
Saul by ecclesiastical organization. He did not 
pick them out by searching for their names in some 
church book. They are called '' the disciples of 
the Lord" — the saints — and their relation to 
Christ is clearly intimated in the inquiry, *' Why 
persecutest thou wze ? " The persecution was 
aimed at Jesus and his genuine disciples, and the 
guilt of it was estimated accordingly; nor was it 
necessary, in order that Saul should persecute the 
true disciples of Christ, that they should, on the 
one hand, be separated from any false professors 
who might chance to be among them ; or, on the 
other hand, that they should be incorporated with 
these false professors, under some system of eccle- 
Biastical government. Samson could bum the corn 
of the Philistines, without either separating the 
wheat from the tares or binding the whole in one 
great bundle. And a man may exclude the light 
of day from his chamber, though he neither ** pick 
out " the sunbeams from the motes that float in 

* This is the error of Bellarmine, de Ecclesia Mil. III. 
cap. 12. Non dici potest [ecclesia] societas hominum, 
nisi in externis et visibilibus signis consLstat. See, also , 
Walter, Kirch enrecht, § 11. 



CHURCH POLITY. 41 

them, nor press tlie light and the motes together 
into one consolidated mass. It should be remem- 
bered, however, that our present inquiry is not, 
whether the term Church includes, in its proper 
signification, false professors as well as true ; but 
whether all professors, both true and false, consti- 
tute one organized society. So far, therefore, as 
the illustration of our present subject is concerned, 
it is of no importance whether the term wheat may 
properly signify the tares as well as the wheat ; or 
the term light, the motes as well as the sunbeams. 
The only question is, whether one organized mass 
must be formed by the wheat and the tares, before 
they can be burned ; or by the sunbeams and the 
motes, before they can be excluded. 

Saul persecuted the Church when he persecuted 
such of its members as were within his reach. 
What was done to the part was regarded as done 
to the whole ; and what was done against the 
members on earth was regarded as done against 
the head in heaven. On the same principle of 
interpretation we may understand the phrases : 
"Gains, the host of the whole Church," — Rom. 
16 : 23. " Give none offence to the Church of 
God,"— 1 Cor. 10 : 32. They import hospitality 
to saints generally, and offence to saints generally. 
But that the saints should be entertained, offended, 
or persecuted, it is not necessary that they should 
be united in a Visible Church Catholic. These 
phrases are two of the remaining proof texts of Dr. 
M., and, like the three before quoted, prove nothing 
to his purpose. 

A second cause which has contributed to the mis- 
4* 



42 CHURCH POLITY. 

interpretation of Scripture on the subject, is a secu- 
larized view of the Christian ministry. 

The Saviour, at Pilate's bar, declared, ** My 
kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were 
of this world, then would my servants fight." In 
this declaration it is clearly implied, that the officers 
in his kingdom, like the kingdom itself, belong to 
another world. When he gave to Peter his great 
pastoral commission, in the memorable words, *' Feed 
my sheep, — Feed my lambs," — he prescribed spir- 
itual duties, and appointed him a pastor, not to a 
single congregation, nor the Visible Church Catholic, 
but to the spiritual flock of Christ. The food ad- 
ministered is spiritual, and the recipients must be 
spiritual ; the food is the sincere milk of the word. 
The recipients are the new-born babes who desire, 
and the believers, to whom Christ is precious. To 
suppose infant and adult members of the Visible 
Church Catholic to be intended, is a gross miscon- 
ception of the Saviour's design. 

When Peter met with Simon the Sorcerer, who 
had professed faith in Christ and been baptized, he 
did not on that account recognize him as one of 
Christ's sheep, and feed him accordingly ; nor did 
he wait for the Church Catholic to bring its power 
to bear on this part of the great body, and expel 
the impurity. Peter regarded not his profession, 
but his spiritual state ; not his relation to any visi- 
ble Church, but his relation to Christ and things 
spiritual. 

As Peter felt and acted, so felt and acted all the 
Apostles ; and so they taught all the primitive min- 
isters to feel and act. So Peter taught : 

*' The elders which are among you I exhort, who 



CHURCH POLITY. 43 

am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of 
Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall 
be revealed : 

*' Feed the flock of God, which is among you, 
taking the oversight thereof ; not by constraint, but 
willingly ; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; 

'' Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but 
being ensamples to the flock. 

"And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye 
shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.'' 
1 Peter 5: 1-4. 

So Paul taught the elders at Ephesus : 

*' Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all 
the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made 
you overseers, to feed the church of God, which 
he hath purchased with his own blood." — Acts 20 : 
28. 

So he taught his son Timothy : 

' ' But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how 
thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, 
which is the church of the living God, the pillar and 
ground of the truth." — 1 Tim. 3: 15. 

These men referred every thing to eternity, and 
the heartrsearching God. They regarded them- 
selves as members of a spiritual body ; and to their 
view the flock of God — the heritage of God — the 
house of God — the Church of God, consisted of 
those who were bound to them by spiritual ties, and 
whom they expected to meet in heaven. 

The spirituality of the Christian ministry is viv- 
idly represented in 1 Cor. 12 chap. The body of 
Christ is one with many members, who are baptized 
into it by one Spirit, and drink of one Spirit. The 
eye, the ear, the hands, the feet, have their proper 



44 CHURCH POLITY. 

offices for the benefit of the whole. Grod hath set 
them in the body : and of none of them can it be 
said it is not of the body. All the diversities of 
gifts are from the same Spirit. From that member 
which sustains the highest and most important office, 
to that which occupies the least honorable place, 
one spiritual sympathy extends, which pervades the 
whole and excludes the possibility of schism. As- 
suredly this is not a description of the Visible 
Church Catholic. No false apostles, no false pro- 
phets, no ministers of Satan, in the form of minis- 
ters of righteousness, belong to this body. God 
has not set such in it. The Spirit has not baptized 
such into it. Such have not a care for the body. 
Of all such it may, with truth, be said, they are not 
of the body. Yet such officers and members must 
belong to the body, if Dr. M.'s interpretation of 
the 28th verse of this chapter is correct. This verse 
is his only remaining proof-text ; and, like all the 
rest, utterly fails, when rightly interpreted, to serve 
the purpose for which it was quoted. 

The evils resulting from secularized views of the 
Christian Church and ministry, are incalculable. 
This cause gave birth to the Man of Sin, and all 
the lordship which has been exercised over God's 
heritage. It has furnished, with sheep's clothing, 
the grievous wolves that have devoured the flock. 
To it may be ascribed, in chief part, the divisions 
which have been the opprobrium of Christianity 
and the stumbling-block of infidels. Having lost 
the unity of the spirit, the professors of religion, lest 
they should, by the independence of the churches, 
and the uncontrolled personal responsibility of every 
member, * ' be scattered abroad upon the face of the 



CHURCH POLITY. 45 

whole earth," resolved to build a tower, whose top 
should reach to heaven, and to inscribe on it the 
motto, VISIBLE UNITY. But, as it happened to the 
builders at Babel, their language became con- 
founded, and their mad scheme ended in discord 
and division. Carnal leaders draw away disciples 
after them ; and those who follow in such divisions 
are carnal. *' While one saith, I am of Paul; and 
another, I am of ApoUos ; are ye not carnal, and 
walk as men?" Many schemes have been pro- 
posed, for the healing of these divisions, by the 
amalgamation of religious societies, but all will 
prove abortive, till men return to the unity of the 
Spirit. 

Having examined the question concerning the 
Visible Church Catholic, as real; we proceed to 
consider it 

II. As verhal. The verbal question may be 
thus stated : Is the term Church properly used to 
denote all the professors of the true religion taken 
collectively? This is a question of comparatively 
little importance ; yet it deserves consideration, on 
account of the close connection which is often found 
to subsist between errors of thought and errors of 
language. 

Men may be classified with respect to any pro- 
perty by which some are distinguished from others. 
The tall, the wise, the honest, the aged, are classes 
of which we may have occasion to think and speak. 
But these classes exist as classes in our minds only. 
The individuals of each class exist separately and 
independently, and may, in fact, have less to do 
with each other than with individuals of other classes^ 
So, all the professors of the true religion may be' 



46 CHURCH POLITY. 

classed together, and may be thought and spoken of 
as if forming a company distinct from the rest of 
mankind. It is therefore possible that the term 
Church may be used to denote this class of men, 
without implying that they are united in a visi- 
ble organization. But can it be so used with pro- 
priety ? 

1. The term which is rendered Church in the 
New Testament, signifies an assembly. Dr. Mason 
says, * ' Whenever it occurs you are sure of an 
assembly, and nothing more." JSTow all the pro- 
fessors of religion, though they form a class in our 
mental conception, do not form an assembly. They 
never have assembled, and they never will assemble 
except on the day of judgment ; and even then they 
will be separated from each other — some on the 
right hand, and some on the left. 

2. In many of the examples in which the term 
Church is in the Scriptures used in its Catholic 
sense, it clearly denotes the body of real saints. 
Of those examples in which it has been supposed 
to denote all the professors of religion, not one has 
been found that, on a careful examination, requires 
this interpretation. To assign a new meaning, with- 
out necessity, is not in accordance with sound criti- 
cism. 

3. It is not necessary to suppose that the inspired 
writers, whenever they employed the term Church 
in its Catholic sense, had present to their minds the 
distinction between true and false professors. A 
field of wheat may be called a field of wheat, with- 
out any regard to tares which may chance to be in 
it. So the several churches were addressed as 
believers, disciples, saints, &c., without regard to 



CHURCH POLITY. 47 

false professors who might chance to be among them ; 
yet the terms believers, disciples, and saints, do not 
acquire a new meaning from such application of 
them. 

We may conclude, therefore, that the term 
Church, when used in its Catholic sense, denotes 
the body of real saints, as distinguished from all 
other persons ; that it never denotes all the profes- 
sors of religion, as distinguished from the body of 
real saints ; and that it cannot include false profes- 
sors of religion, unless it be in a vague and loose 
application of it. 

it has been asked. Is not baptism the door into 
the Church ? To this question it might be a suffi- 
cient reply, to refer to the tenth chapter of John, 
the only place of Scripture in which the door into the 
fold of Christ is mentioned. But if we must furnish 
an answer from the analogy of faith, rather than by 
direct appeal to Scripture, it will be needful to find 
the house, before we seek for the door. K there is 
no such building as the Visible Church Catholic, all 
inquiry about the door into it must, of course, be 
useless. 

Baptism has been placed, by Christ, at the begin- 
ning of all the outward duties which he requires of 
his followers. It is, therefore, an initiatory ser- 
vice. But all agree that, as in the case of the 
Ethiopian Eunuch, baptism does not introduce to 
membership in a particular church; and it is clear 
that an individual must be a member of Christ's 
spiritual body, before baptism, or any other duty, 
can be acceptably performed. *' Without me ye 
can do nothing." 

For whose accommodation is this building needed, 



48 CHUKCII POLITY. 

of which baptism is the door ? It denies shelter, of 
course, to all unbaptized persons ; and all regen- 
erate persons are better provided for, having been 
admitted into Christ's spiritual house. The only 
persons, therefore, who need it, are the unregen- 
erate baptized, the followers of Simon the Socerer, 
who, while they profess Christ, are in the gall of 
bitterness and the bond of iniquity. Verily, for 
such persons, God's wise master builders ai'e not 
required to provide a building ; much less have 
they been authorized to place one of Christ's ordi- 
nances as the door into it. Pedobaptists have found 
difficulty in assigning a suitable apartment to their 
baptized infants ; and have placed them, not so pro- 
perly in the Church, as within its pale. Whether 
it would better accord with the analogy of this faith, 
to call baptism the gate, than the door, may be left 
for those to decide who are unwilling to keep the 
ordinances as they were delivered. 

Baptism is not, like the Lord's supper, a social 
rite. It signifies the fellowship of the individual 
believer with Christ, not the fellowship of believers 
with one another. The obligation to be baptized is 
independent of the obligation to form social rela- 
tions with other disciples, and is prior. Baptism is, 
therefore, a qualification for admission into a Church 
of external organization; but it does not confer 
membership. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

PARTICULAR CHURCHES. 

The Gospel is admirably adapted to man. Its 
disclosures of grace meet his wants, as a fallen, 
guilty creature; and its revelation of a future 
state satisfies the instinctive longings of his soul 
for immortality. The ecclesiastical polity of the 
New Testament is not less suited to him, as a 
social being. The instincts of our nature lead us 
to society, and many of our noblest qualities are 
called forth and nurtured by its influence. A par- 
ticular Church is a society of believers baptized 
upon profession of their faith in Christ. 

When the Apostles went forth, under the borad 
commission of their ascended Master, preaching the 
Gospel, they gathered together the fruits of their 
ministry, wherever they went, into local societies. 
These are the only Churches known to the New 
Testament. They constitute the external develop- 
ment of Christ's kingdom; and are employed, as 
nurseries, to prepare the genuine children of the 
kingdom for their ultimate and permanent abode. 

A Church of Christ is a single congregation of 
professed believers, formed by the mutual agree* 



50 CHURCH POLITY. 

ment of its members, and designed for religious 
purposes. In this sense the word is used by the 
sacred writers more than sixty times. This is the 
view which has always been held by Baptists. '' A 
particular gospel Church/' says one of the earliest 
authorities in this country, ** consists of a company 
of saints incorporated by a special covenant, into 
one distinct body, and meeting together in one 
place, for the enjoyment of fellowship with each 
other, and with Christ their head, in all his insti- 
tutions, to their mutual edification, and the glory 
of God through the Spirit. ''* 2 Cor. 8:5; Acts 
2: 1. 

Several important principles are involved in the 
scriptural definition of a gospel Church. 

1 . A Church is a single local society. 

2. It is composed of professed believers. 

3. It possesses the power of admitting to mem- 
bership, exercising discipline, choosing its officers, 
and, in general, managing its own affairs. 

4. It is independent of all other Churches. 
Each of these points demands a separate investi- 
gation. 

* Summary of Church Discipline of the Charleston Asso- 
ciation, republished by Rev. D. Sheppard, Charleston, 1831. 
This Summary was prepared, probably, by Oliver Hart, 
Francis Pelot, and David Williams. Rippon's Register, 
for A. D. 1796, p. 511. 



CHAPTEE V. 

A CHURCH IS A SINGLE LOCAL SOCIETY. 

This is clear : 

1. From the meaning and use of the term. We 
read in the New Testament of '*the Church " in a 
particular city, village, and even house, and of 
*' the Churches '' of certain regions; but never of 
a Church involving a plurality of congregations.* 
*'A bishoprick was but a single congregation. "f 
There is no trace of any other kind of Church, 
presbytcrian, diocesan, or national. J 

2. From the history of the Churches in the New 
Testament. 

The Church at Jerusalem, the model after which 
the other Churches seem to have been formed, § was 
a single congregation, which could meet together 
for social worship and the transaction of Church 
business. II So also the Churches at Antioch, Co- 

* Acts 2: 47; 13 : 1 ; Rom. 16: 1,5; Col. 4 : 15 ; Acts 
9 : 31 ; 15 : 40, 41 ; 1 Cor. 16 : 19. 

t King's Prim. Church, cap. 2, § 12. 

+ R. Hall's Wks. 4, p. 394. 

§ Gieseler's Church Hist. I. p. 56. 

II Acts 2; 44, 46; 4: 23—31; 5: 11—14. Comp. 3: 2^ 
11; 6: 1-6. 



52 CHURCH POLITY. 

rinth, Ephesus, &c., were all single congrega- 
tions.* 

It has been objected tbat the members of these 
Churches were too numerous to constitute a single 
congregation. t But if the New Testament alludes, 
in these cases, to only one Church, and affirms that 
** the whole Church" did meet together and trans- 
act business in common, the objection is negatived 
by the authority of Scripture. The argument which 
attempts to disprove the congregational polity of the 
Church at Jerusalem, is similar to that by which 
the baptism of its members has been assailed. The 
narrative in Acts plainly intimates that the three 
thousand converts were baptized, (or immersed.) 
But it is objected that they were too numerous to 
be baptized, and therefore must have been sprink- 
led. In either case the baptized congregationalist 
rejects the unwarrantable assumption. J 

* Acts 13: 1-4; 14: 25—27; 15: 22—30; 1 Cor. 11: 20, 
33 ; 14 : 23, 26. 

t Dick's Theol. 2, p. 478. Hill, p 692. Milner, Church 
Hist. Cent. 3, ch. 20. 

J The baptism of the three thousand is not so improbable 
a case after all. I baptized, on one occasion, seventy-six 
persons in seventeen minutes, and that without any special 
view to expedition. I did not even know that any one was 
noticing the time. The twelve apostles, baptizing at the 
same rate, would have baptized the three thousand in fifty- 
five minutes and fifty-five seconds ! 

Since writing the above, I have learned that "Elder 



CHURCH POLITY. 6 

It is not, however, material to the argument to 
prove that the members of a Church actually did 
meet together for social worship. The Scriptures 
inform us that this was the case at Jerusalem. In 
other cities, where the number of members was very- 
large, local convenience may have been consulted ; 
and there may have been portions of the Church 
that held their religious meetings in different places, 
but still constituting, as in some of our large cities, 
branches or arms of the Church located in those 
cities. This is rendered probable, by the existence 
of a plurality of bishops. It is sufficient to show 
that the Churches of the New Testament were sin- 
gle societies, that the members of a certain locality 
constituted a Church, not Churches, and that they 
were addressed by the Apostles, as a unit and not a 
plurality. Even if it be conceded, therefore, that 
the number of elders, found in the primitive 
Churches, was rendered necessary by their habit 
of assembling in different places of worship, this 
does not affect the cono-reojational character of these 
Churches ; since each body of elders was addressed 

Courtney baptized seventy-five persons in the basin on 
the canal, in Richmond, Va. He had assistants, who 
led the candidates to and from him ; and he performed the 
whole in seventeen minutes, notwithstanding he was sev- 
enty years old." Life of John Leland, Richmond, 1836, p. 
33. For similar cases among the earlier Christians, see 
Christian Rev. III. p. 91. 



54 CHURCH POLITY. 

as the oflGicers of ''the Church," plainly evincing 
that the community to which they were attached, 
constituted a single society. 

3. From the large number of distinct Churches 
which are mentioned in the New Testament. 

Churches seem to have been instituted upon the 
principle of local convenience. Whenever a body 
of converts were found, who could conveniently 
assemble together for the discharge of the duties 
of Church members, there a Church was organized. 
Hence we find separate Churches contiguous to 
each other. The Church at Cenchrea was only 
nine miles from that at Corinth.* In the epistle 
to the Colossians the names of four distinct Churches 
occur, located within a distance of five miles, t Five 
and thirty different Churches are referred to in the 
New Testament, besides a great many more that are 
comprehended in the general designation, " Churches 
of Asia,'' '* Churches of Macedonia," &c.J 

This view of a Christian Church is so obviously 
scriptural, as to have commanded the assent of a 
large number of historians and theologians. The 

* E,om. 16 : 1. 

t Col. 4 : 13 — 16. Calmet states that Hierapolis and 
Laodicea were five miles apart, and Colosse midway between 
them. 

J Punchard, on Congregationalism, p. 49, gives a list of 
the thirty-five churches. Also, Dr. Curtis, Bible Episco- 
pacy, p. 97. 



CHUBCH POLITY. 55 

following are a few of many authorities that might 
be cited : 

'* The simplest conception of a Church is that of 
a community of believers, dwelling in the same 
place, and associated for the promotion of Christ's 
kingdom." Schleiermacher. Kurtze Darstellung 
des theol. Stud. § 277. 

In the primitive age ^' a Church and a diocese 
seem to have been, for a considerable time, co- 
extensive and identical. And each Church or dio- 
cese, and consequently each superintendent [i. e. 
bishop or elder], though connected with the rest by 
the ties of faith and love and charity, seems to have 
been perfectly independent, as far as regards any 
power of control." Archbishop Whately, Kingdom 
of Christ, p. 136. 

** A Church I take to be a voluntary society of 
men, joining themselves together of their own ac- 
cord, in order to the public worshipping of God, in 
such manner as they judge acceptable to him, and 
effectual to the salvation of their souls." Locke, 
Letter I. on Toleration. Vf\s. fol. 2, p. 235. 

"In no approved writers, for the space of two 
hundred years after Christ, is there any mention 
made of any other organical, visibly professing 
Church, but that only which is parochial, or congre- 
gational." J. Owen, Wks. 20^ p. 132.* 

* Haldane, Social Worship, chap. 5, § 1. Leonard Bacon, 
Manual for Church Members, p. 15. 



CHAPTER VI. 

MEMBERS OF A CHURCH. 

The primary and indispensable qualification for 
membersliip in a particular Church, consists in a con- 
nection with the general Church, or body of Christ. 
*' Every one is so far a member of Christ's Church 
as he is a member of Christ's body."* Each 
particular Church seeks to represent, in itself, 
the kingdom of Christ, and ought, therefore, to be 
composed entirely of spiritual materials. It is no 
part of its design to embrace unbelievers, and pre- 
pare them for the kingdom of heaven. They have 
no right to its privileges and blessings. They are 
intruders at its ordinances. No ecclesiastical recog- 
nition of them as children, can change their relation 
as aliens and strangers ; and they who introduce 
them contravene the declared will of the great Head 
of the Church. The gates of his kingdom are open 
to none but converted men. It is, therefore, the 
imperative duty of the Churches to admit to member- 
ship none but such as give satisfactory evidence that 
they have been born again. This was the practice 
of the apostles. t 

* T. Jackson on the Church, p. 19. Phila., 1844. 

t " No one," says Marheinecke, " is a member of the 
Church by birth : he becomes one first by the new birth." 
Die Grundlehren der christlichen Dogmatik. § 693. 



CHURCH POLITY. 57 

That the Churches planted by them were compos- 
ed of such as they deemed real believers is evident, 

1. From the addresses of the different epistles: — 
'* Paul, to all that be in Eome, beloved of God, 
called saints. To the Church of God at Corinth, to 
them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints. 
To the saints which are at Ephesus and the faithful 
in Christ Jesus. To the saints in Christ Jesus, 
which are at Philippi. Peter, to them that have 
obtained like precious faith." 

2. From the general tenor of the epistles. In 
proof of this position, it is simply necessary to 
refer the reader to these inspired compositions them- 
selves. Every allusion to the origin of the Church- 
es ; every description of the character of the mem- 
bers ; every exhortation, rebuke, and warning ; all 
directions with respect to their government and dis- 
cipline, bear ample evidence that they were contem- 
plated by the authors of the epistles, as comprising 
only those who had made a credible profession of their 
faith in the Redeemer. Had the apostles sanctioned 
the admission of unconverted men into the Churches, 
their practice would have been at variance with the 
spirit of their subsequent communications to them. 
To address such persons as the children of light and 
the temples of the Holy Ghost, would have been to 
use language without meaning, or singularly delu- 
sive. The limits of this work forbid an extended 



8 CHURCH POLITY. 

investigation of this topic. The reader is requested 
to consult the following passages of Scripture, in 
which the character of Church members is clearly 
exhibited :* Col. 3 : 9 ; 1 Thess. 5 : 5 ; 1 Cor. 6 : 
19 ; 5 : 7 ; 3 : 9—17 ; 2 Cor. 7 : 8, 18 ; 6 : 14, 
18 ; Acts 8 : 26—40 ; 1 Pet. 2 : S.f 

3. The design of Christian Churches aflfords addi- 
tional evidence that none but believers were contem- 
plated in their organization. This part of the sub- 
ject has been presented in so just and beautiful a 
view by a pious pedobaptist writer, that I cannot do 
better than to transcribe his words : — '' The Church 
is a sacred enclosure taken in from the world — 
brought into cultivation by the Divine Husbandman, 

* In the famous controversy between Pres. Edwards, and 
Solomon Williams, concerning the half-way covenant, the 
former took the broad scriptural ground, that none but 
such as gave credible evidence of their faith in Christ should 
be admitted to the Lord's Supper. But, as a pedobaptist, 
he was obliged to admit that those who had been baptized 
in infancy were *' in some sort members of the Church.'* 
In this they were both agreed. Here Williams erected his 
strong battery, and managed it with great effect. He prov- 
ed that the position of his opponent, if maintained, would 
annihilate infant baptism. Either that ordinance must be 
given up, or Edwards must surrender. He did not choose 
to abandon infant baptism, and was vanquished, not by the 
truth of his opponent, but by his own error. Edwards, 
Humble Inquiry, Works 4, p. 423-428. Curtis, Bib. Episc. 
p. 173. 

f Haldane, Social Worship, ch. 6. Punchard Congrega- 
tionalism, pp. 40 — 47. 



CHURCH POLITY. 59 

and intended to be filled exclusively witli the plants 
of righteousness. He designed the Church to be 
his own peculium : it is the only fortress which he 
holds in a revolted world ; and he intended, there- 
fore, that no authority should be known in it, no 
laws acknowledged, but his own ; that no parties 
should obtain admission, but those ' who are called, 
and chosen, and faithful ; ' so that to open its gates 
for the entrance of any of the revolted, however spe- 
cious the pretext, is a betrayal of the most sacred 
trust, and treachery to the great cause of Christ. " 
Harris, Great Teacher, p. 214. 

So writes Dr. Smyth, and, indeed, every evangel- 
ical writer, when not thinking of infant baptism. 
'* Only those who make a credible profession of 
their faith in Christ, can be admitted as members of 
the Church of Christ ; because its privileges, by 
their very nature, are intended only for those who, in 
the judgment of charity, are disciples of Christ."* 

If these views are just and scriptural, it is evident 
that no place is provided, in a Christian Church, for 
such as do not, or cannot profess their faith in 
Christ. As infants belong to this class, they are ex- 
cluded by the original and divine constitution of a 

* Eccl. Catechism, p. 80. This is excellent. But we 
find, in the same work, among the meanings ascribed to 
the word Church, the following: "The whole body of 
those, with their children, who profess the true religion." 
p. 10, Dick Theol. 2, p. 380, 460. Punchard^ p. 40. 



60 CHURCH POLITY. 

Christian Church. Upon the same principle they 
are excluded from baptism, since the ordinance is the 
appointed method of professing our faith in the Re- 
deemer. The grounds upon which the right of in- 
fants to baptism is based, are various and contradic- 
tory ; they are all alike unscriptural. ** It is a com- 
mon sentiment," observes one of its advocates, *' that 
the baptism of children makes them members of the 
Church ; but this is an error. Their baptism does 
not make them members, it only recognizes their 
right of membership already existing ; their mem- 
bership is not founded upon their baptism, but 
their baptism upon their membership."* But an- 
other afl&rmsfthat '*the children of the members 
cannot be considered as members of the Church, 
being incapable of fulfilling the duties of that relar 
tion." A more recent writer teaches that baptism 
*' brings the child into the Church of God, to which 
he has promised his favor and blessings — translates 
it from the kingdom of darkness into the visible 
kingdom of God's dear Son, on earth." J There 
is plainly a schism on this point among pedobaptists, 

* Rev. S. Helfenstein. The Church of God. Am. Bib. 
Repos. 2, p. 314. C. C. Jones, Catechism, p. 246. 

f Haldane, Social Worship, p. 321. He afterwards re- 
nounced infant baptism. Indeed it is surprising, that one 
who could write such a book should practice it. 

J Rev. W. Hodges, Infant Baptism tested by Scripture 
a^d History, Phil. 1844, p. 243. 



CHURCH POLITY. 61 

according to the views of the respective denomina- 
tions to which they belong. The Papal and Episco- 
pal Churches maintain that the infant is made a 
member of the Church by baptism ; while the Lu- 
theran and Presbyterian Churches contend that it is 
entitled to the ordinance, because it is already a 
member. * To the former class the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church seems to belong. Mr. Wesley says : 
*' By baptism we are admitted into the Church, and, 
consequently, made members of Christ, its Head, "t 
Dr. Bond has taken a different view. '' Baptism is 
not properly the initiating ordinance, by which we 
become subjects of this kingdom, [Messiah's] but 
the ratifying or sealing ordinance, by which we are 
so acknowledged by the Church and ministry of 
Christ. Children are initiated into the kingdom at 
their birth. "J This, it will be perceived, throws 
the door open to all children. But pedobaptists 
have usually restricted the ordinance to the offspring 
of believers. Even upon this point, however, there 

* C. G. Neudecker. Lehrbuch der christl. Dogmengesch. 
§ 56, where he says that the " Lutheran, E-eformed, Roman 
and Grecian Catholic Churches supported infant baptism 
against the fanatical Anabaptists and Mennonites, and 
against Schwenkfield on the ground that it was, in general, 
necessary to salvation." Hinton's Hist. Baptism, p. 338. 

t Preservatives, p. 146 — 150, quoted by Booth. Yindic. 
Bap. Sec. 1. 

X N. Y. Christian Advocate, copied in Biblical Recorder. 
N. C, Jan. 27, 1844. 

6 



62 CHURCH POLITY. 

is another schism. * It is refreshing to turn from 
the conflicting opinions of men to the simple word of 
God, which contains no intimation of infant member- 
ship, either before or after baptism, and recognizes 
only baptized believers as the constituents of a gos- 
pel Church. 

The abettors of infant baptism have, usually, rested 
its claims upon an alledged identity of the covenant 
of circumcision and the covenant of grace ; and, as- 
suming that baptism has taken the place of circum- 
cision, have argued that, as children were formerly 
admitted to the latter ordinance, they ought now to 
be to the former. To examine at length all the argu- 
ments by which this subject has been mystified, does 
not comport with the limits of this little book. It 
will be sufficient, however, to expose some of the lead- 
ing assumptions involved in the theory in question. 

* Archbishop Leighton writes to one of his friends : 
*' Touching baptism, freely my thought is, it is a weak 
notion, taken up on trust almost generally, to consider so 
much, or at all, the qualifications of the parents. Either 
it is a benefit to infants, or it is not. If none, why then 
administered at all? But if it be, then why should the 
poor innocents be prejudged of it for the parents' cause ? " 
"Works, p. 681. Baptism, in his view, ** signifies and seals 
our washing from sin and our new birth in Jesus Christ," 
p. 506. The seal, however, proves to be very brittle, for 
" the open wickedness of the most testifies against them, 
that though sprinkled with water in baptism, yet they are 
strangers to the power and gracious efficacy of it ; they are 
swearers, cursers, drunkards, unclean," p. 223. 



CHURCH POLITY. 63 

1. It involves the assumption, that the covenant 
of circumcision is the covenant of grace. If this 
were the case, all who lived before Abraham, as well 
as all, who, in subsequent times, are not in the line 
of circumcision, would be excluded from the covenant 
of grace. What, then, becomes of Abel and other 
antediluvian patriarchs 'I The truth is, that circum- 
cision stands in no necessary relation to spiritual bles- 
sings. It is the distinguishing mark of a race, the 
members of which are determined by natural descent. 
The possession of spiritual blessings by the circumcis- 
ed is not invariable, but accidental to the rite ; and 
is determined upon other principles. Its design was, 
together with other rites and ceremonies, which were 
peculiar to the Jewish people, to segregate, and, 
consequently, preserve the nation. ' ' These pecu- 
liarities," observes the learned historian of the He- 
brew Commonwealth, " formed the foundation upon 
which was built the great partition wall between 
them and other nations. '■ * 

2. It assumes that the covenant made with Abra- 
ham, which involved spiritual blessings, and the 
covenant of circumcision are identical. But it is 
evident, from the third chapter of Galatians, that 
these covenants are distinct. The former was made, 

* Jahn. Heb. Com. p. 38, 138. So Photius and Chrysos- 
tom and Theodoret, quoted by Dr. Brantly, Baptist Li- 
brary, 3, p. 400. 



64 CHURCH POLITY. 

according to the statement of the apostle, four hun- 
dred and thirty years before the delivery of the 
Law. This computation makes it coeval with the 
calling of Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, an 
event which occurred twenty-four years before the 
covenant of circumcision. 

3. It confounds the natural with the spiritual seed 
of Abraham ; the children of the flesh with the chil- 
dren of the promise. These are clearly distinguished 
in the word of God. * The argument on this point 
is simple and direct. The passages which are cited 
in support of infant baptism, in connection with the 
Abrahamic covenant, must refer either to his na- 
tural, or his spiritual seed. If to the former. Gentile 
infants are excluded, since they are not the lineal 
descendants of the patriarch ; if to the latter, all in- 
fants are excluded by the very terms which designate 
the relation. " Know ye therefore that they which 
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." 

The above remarks are sufficient to expose the 
flimsy foundation upon which this theory is built ; 
the weakness of which is so apparent, that it has 
been abandoned by many pedobaptists themselves, t 

The recognition of unconverted persons, as mem- 
bers of a Christian Church, is an evil of no ordinary 

* Gal. 3 : 18, 29 ; 4 : 28, cf. Rom. 9 : 7, 9. 

f Stuart on the 0. T. p. 394. Letters of David (Jones) 
and John (Dagg) on the Lectures of Dr. Woods, Lee. 3. 
C arson on Baptism, p. 214, 237- Hinton, ch. 5, § 1. 



CHURCH POLITY. 65 

magnitude. It throws down the wall of partition 
which Christ himself has erected, and obliterates the 
distinction between the Church and the world. A 
society composed of believers, and sustained and ex- 
tended by spiritual instrumentalities, has the pro- 
mise of the Redeemer pledged for its perpetuation. 
Such a community is indestructible. The body, 

" Vital in every part, 
Cannot, but by annihilating, die." 

It becomes the disciples of the Saviour to guard well 
the door of admission into their fraternity. Upon 
their fidelity, in this respect, depend its efficiency, 
prosperity, and safety. An accession of nominal 
Christians may enlarge its numbers, but cannot aug- 
ment its real strength. A Church that welcomes to 
the privileges of Christ's house, the unconverted, 
under the specious pretext of increasing the number 
of his followers, in reality betrays the citadel to his 
foes. They may glory in the multitudes that flock 
to their expanded gates, and exult in their brighten- 
ing prospects ; but the joy and the triumph will be 
alike transient. They have mistaken a device of 
the enemy for the work of God. They hailed, as 
they thought, an angel of light ; they have received 
Satan. I admire and love the many sincere and 
zealous Christians that are found in such Churches ; 
but I fear that this Trojan horse will finally prove 
their ruin. 

6* 



66 CHURCH POLITY. 

On the subject of infant baptism, and what seem 
to me to be its legitimate tendencies, I have recorded 
my sentiments without reserve, and, I trust, without 
offence. I impeach no man's motives ; nor do I 
question the piety and sincerity of those of my Chris- 
tian brethren who believe that this practice is sanc- 
tioned by the divine command. Many pedobaptists 
are among the lights and ornaments of the age ; 
their ministry has been blessed of God to the exten- 
sion of the Redeemer's kingdom, and their Churches 
present numerous examples of pure and unaffected 
piety. Such men would not, knowingly, contravene 
the law of Christ. They would welcome the obloquy 
of the world, and even the agonies of martyrdom, in 
obedience to the command of their Lord and King, 
and rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer 
for Christ's sake. It is impossible not to admire 
and love men whose faith and practice associate them 
with Baxter, Leighton, Edwards, and Martyn, and 
who breathe their heavenly spirit. While I think I 
see and regret their errors, I would extend to them 
the same indulgence which I ask for my own. 



/ 



CHAPTER VII. 



RIGHTS OF A CHURCH. 



As it was manifestly the design of the Eedeemer 
that his Churches should embrace only such as pro- 
fessed his name, and submitted to his will as the law 
of their life, so, also, he has entrusted to them the 
high privileges of self-government under Him. The 
New Testament, which contains the charter, consti- 
tution, and discipline of these voluntary societies of 
Christians, defines and limits their rights. What- 
ever powers have been expressly delegated to them, 
they may exercise : the assumption of others is an 
unauthorized usurpation. The Churches are bound 
to retain the full possession of the rights and priv- 
ileges committed to them by Christ. They have 
as little authority to diminish, as to increase them. 
Acquiescing in the wisdom of the divine plan, and 
grateful for the advantages it secures, they should 
firmly resist every invasion of its supremacy, or vio- 
lation of its spirit. 

The divine constitution of the Churches is equal- 
ly illustrative of the wisdom and the condescension 
of the Redeemer. In committing the government 
of his chosen people to themselves, he has graciously 



68 CHURCH POLlTi^. 

evinced his confidence in their fidelity and love. 
And this confidence has not, usually, been betrayed. 
The enormous evils which, under the guise of Chris- 
tianity, have cursed the Church and the world, were 
the legitimate fruits of priestcraft, prelacy, and hie- 
rarchal domination. The great body of the people, 
when left to themselves, have always retained their 
loyalty and love to their invisible king. 

1. Every Christian Church possesses the right of 
discipline, formative and corrective. With its di- 
vine constitution in its hands, defining the qualifica- 
tions which entitle to membership, it is its province to 
determine as to the possession of those qualifications, 
in the case of every applicant. Its nature as a vol- 
untary society, involves the right to admit and to 
exclude. Primitive Christians constituted a volun- 
tary compact; they gave themselves first to the 
Lord, and then to one another ; and were always 
addressed as those who had decided for themselves 
on the solemn subject of adherence to Christ. 

The fundamental principles of Church discipline 
are laid down in Matt. 18: 15: 18. Here the 
Saviour enjoins the course to be pursued towards an 
ofFendin 2; brother, and desio;nates ''the OhurcK'' as 
the tribunal of ultimate appeal. What, then, is the 
Church? The context affords a satisfactory reply. 
** Where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I." This is the Church to which 



CHURCH POLITY. 69 

Christ alludes. It is gathered in his name, and 
blessed with his presence ; and is, therefore, compe- 
tent to decide a question involving the interests 
of his cause. The Scriptures recognize no higher 
authority. It is worthy of remark that in the or- 
ganization of this ecclesiastical court for the trial of 
offences, the officers of the Church are not even 
mentioned. Their presence is not considered indis- 
pensable. '' No officer is here. It is not the 
Church clerk, nor the parties that have neglected to 
summon him. The Church's Head, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, has left him out." * 

To evade the force of these remarks, and take 
from the people the discipline of the Church, it is 
contended that the word, in this place, refers to the 
officers or representatives of the Church, t But, 
surely, nothing but the most imperative critical ne- 
cessity would justify such an unusual interpretation : 
an interpretation which, so far from being demanded 
by the exigency of the case, is positively excluded. 
Some of the best critics, even among Episcopalians, 
sustain this, the natural and usual explanation of 
the passage. 1: The correctness of this interpretation 

* Curtis, Bib. Episc. p. 145. 

t Smyth, Eccl. Catech. 1, § 1, 6. Dr. Miller, Presbyteri- 
anism, p. 58. 

X " The Church or particular commuiiity of which he is a 
member." Bland, Bloomfield. The old English versions 
of 1539 and 1541 render : ** Tell it to the congregation." 



70 CHURCH POLITY. 

is supported by the directions which were subse- 
quently given to the Churches by the apostles. 
Rom. 16 : 17 ; I Cor. 5 : 9—13 ; II Thess. 3 : 
6, 14, 15. If the reader will turn to those passages 
of Scripture, he will see that they recognize the right 
of the Churches to discipline offenders, and demand 
its exercise. 

If any thing further were necessary to vindicate 
the rights of God's people, and sustain them against 
the assumptions of clerical supremacy, it would seem 
that the case of the Corinthian Church is unambigu- 
ous and decisive. On an occasion which demanded 
the most stringent application of corrective discipline, 
even an apostle does not venture to trench upon the 
prerogatives of the brotherhood. He does not inter- 
fere, in virtue of his apostolic authority, to coerce 
them ; he does not address their officers ; but takes 
occasion, in an epistle *' to the Church of God 
which is at Corinth,'' to suggest a proper method 
of procedure. ' In the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, when ye are gathered together and my spirit, 
with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver 
such an one unto Satan [i. e. to cast him out of the 
Church and send him back to the world, which is 
the kingdom of Satan.] Purge out, therefore, the 
old leaven." I Cor. 5 : 4—7, 13. The faithful 
exercise of discipline in this case, seems to have been 
blessed by God to the restoration of the Church's 



CHURCH POLITr. 71 

purity and peace. The incestuous person was led 
to repentance. The apostle again tenders the breth- 
ren his advice. " Sufficient to such a man is this 
punishment, which was inflicted of many, [that is 
excommunication by the majority of the Church] so 
that ye ought, rather, to forgive him and comfort 
him. Wherefore I heseech you that ye would con- 
firm your love to him." II Cor. 2 : 6—11. '' The 
apostle does not here," observes Punchard, *' speak 
as one having alone the key of the Corinthian 
Church ; but contrariwise, as one who recognized 
the power * of the many' to act in the matter. He 
does not command the Church to restore the peni- 
tent, but he ' beseeches^ them : much less does he 
restore the excommunicated person by the authority 
vested in himself as a minister of the gospel of 
Christ."* The tone of rebuke with which the 
apostle addressed the Church, not its officers, shows 
that the responsibility rested with them, and that 
they were chargeable with gross dereliction of duty. 
Had this not been the case, his censure would have 
been equally unjust and unkind, f 

The Christian system involves a provision of 
mercy for the human race, irrespective of natural 
distinctions. It is the divinely appointed remedy 

* Congregationalism, p. 65. Haldane, p. 346. 
t Coleman, Prim. Ch., ch. 5, p. 90. Bacon, Manual, p. 
22. Walker, Church DiscipHne, § 10. King, ch. 7, } 3. 



72 CHURCH POLITY. 

for guilt and depravity ; and as these are the univer- 
sal characteristics of our fallen race, it proflfers its 
redeeming and sanctifying grace to woman as well 
as to man. But it is no part of its design to dis- 
turb the natural relation of the sexes, or obliterate 
the distinctions which the Creator has himself ap- 
pointed. Hence, in the organization of the Church 
it has pleased divine wisdom to sanction and perpe- 
tuate the subordination of woman to man, by exclud- 
ing her from any share in the administration of its 
government. To woman was assigned the distin- 
guishing honor of giving birth to the Saviour of 
mankind ; and this fact alone is sufficient to redeem 
Christianity from the imputation of depreciating or 
slighting the sex, even though it confers upon her 
no other prerogatives in the church than silence, 
obedience, and the personal illustration of the 
graces appropriate to her high vocation. ** Let 
the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp 
authority over the man, but to be in silence." — 1 
Tim2: 11-12. This passage, compared with 1 Cor. 
14 : 34, amounts to a total exclusion of the sex 
from the public instruction and government of the 
Church.* It has been supposed that 1 Cor. 11 : 
5, conflicts with the other passage of the epistle to 
which I have referred. ''We must account for this 

* Vid. Macknight and Bloomfield, in loc. 



CHURCil t^OLlTY. 3 

contradiction," says Neander, **bysup. 
posing that Paul, in tlie second passage, (1 Cor. 
11: 5,) cited an instance of wbat occurred in the 
Corinthian Church, and reserved his censures for 
another place.* For Mr. Mercer's views, which 
iiccord with mj own, with respect to the participa- 
tion of females in the government of the Church, 
see his Memoirs by Eev. C. D. Mallary, App. p. 
447. The Discipline of the Charleston Association, 
p. 132, declares that '' female members are exclud- 
ed from all share of rule or government in the 
Church." Some of our Churches practise other- 
wise. Mr. Punchard says: "It is generally 
thought desirable that the female members of a 
Chiu'ch should be present at the transaction of all 
ordinary business, for their satisfaction and instruc- 
tion ; but it is utterly inconsistent with established 
usage, for females to take any part in business 
transactions." — p. ITO.f This unscriptural custom 

* Planting of the Church, p. 38. We have an exampJe 
of the same method of teaching in ch. 8. T. Grantham 
thus explains the passage, ** Every woman prayingor proph- 
esying,'* &c. He says: ''The whole Church is said to do 
a thing, when it is actually performed by one person or a 
few," of. ch, 14 : 23, 24. Hence a woman is said to pray, 
when she does so through the person who prays in th& 
Church. Chris tianismus Primitivus, Part II. B. III. c. 7, 
§ 2 — London, 1678. 

t Benedict, History Baptist, 2, p. 472. *« There were 
some fanatical sects in the ancient Church, such as the 

7 



74 CHURCH POLITY. 

originated, probably, in that spurious delicacy which 
induces some ministers, on baptismal occasions, to 
administer the ordinance to the women first, a spe- 
cies of refinement which partakes more of modem 
chivalry than primitive Christianity. Women who 
appreciate their true position will decline the honor. 

2. A Church possesses the right to choose its own 
officers. 

The evidence of the Scriptures in support of this 
position is clear and conclusive. They record 
instances of the election of an apostle, and of dea- 
cons, delegates, and elders, each by a popular vote. 
It need excite no surprise that the position has been 
vigorously assailed.* The importance of the prin- 
ciple a! stake, justifies both the attack and the 
defence. If the clergy have been invested with the 
sole power of appointment, they are right in con- 
tending for it. If, on the contrary, the Head of the 
Church has deposited this prerogative with those 
whose interests are most intimately involved in its 
exercise, it becomes them to resist clerical encroach- 
ment, with the vigilance and firmness of Christ's 
freemen. 

The first instance on record is the appointment 

Montanists and C oily ridians, who authorized and encour- 
aged women to speak, dispute, and teach in public. But 
the sentiment of the Church has uniformly been opposed 
to such indecencies." Coleman, Christ. Antiq. p. 118. 
* Taylor, Spir. Desp. p. 324-333. 



CHURCH POLITy. 75 

of an apostle. — Acts 1 : 15-26. If ttie apostles had 
considered themselves authorized, in any case, to 
act upon their own responsibility, it would have been 
on this occasion, when a vacancy was to be supplied 
in their own body. But we hear nothing of the 
apostolic power of appointment. They settle at the 
outset the principle which is to determine such 
matters, by committing the choice of an apostle, 
under God, to the people. The Church at Jerusa- 
lem was vested with the appointing power. Even 
if this extraordinary case were an exception, it 
would not negative the evidence in favor of popular 
suffrage, which is derived from other instances. 
These will now be examined. 

In Acts 6 : 1-6, the election of deacons occurs. 
The apostles call together ** the multitude of the 
disciples," and propose the matter to them. The 
'' whole multitude" unite in the choice of the seven, 
and *' set them before the apostles for prayer and 
the imposition of hands." No satisfactory explana- 
tion of this case can be given, but that which sup- 
poses that in the judgment of the apostles it was the 
prerogative of the Church to choose its own officers.* 
The comment of a distinguished Episcopalian on 
this transaction is worthy of notice. '' The apos- 
tles, the heads of the Church, prescribed the quali- 
fications for the office, the people chose the persons 

* Punchard, p. 59. Coleman, p. 56. 



76 CnUIM^il POLITY. 

who were thus worthy, and the apostles ordained 
them to the appomted office. Every Church, we infer 
therefore, is entitled and bound to follow this plan of 

conduct The same rules which were on the 

present occasion prescribed, we have reason to sup- 
pose, were observed likewise in the nomination of 
bishop and deacons in the Churches."* Although 
he denies that any ' ' possible authority can be 
derived from this portion of Scripture to sanction 
the laity in taking upon themselves the choice and 
appointment of their respective ministry," he makes 
every concession for which Congregationalists have 
usually contended. They insist upon the right of 
the laity to elect their own officers, but admit that 
the act of a presbytery is necessary to induct them 
regularly into office.! 

The position which I have taken is confirmed by 
the fact that even in the appointment of individuals 
to less important duties than those which appertain 
to official station in the Church, the apostles invited 
the counsel and cooperation of the brethren, and 
submitted to their choice. Acts 15 : 22-29, (comp. 
II. Cor. 8 : 19,) records an instance of the election 
of delegates. "Then pleased it the apostles and 
elders with the whole Church, [at Jerusalem] to 

* Townsend, N. T. Part 9, note SO. 

t Punchard, p. 164. Church Discip. Charleston Assoc- 
ch. 2. Haldane, ch. 7. 



CHURCH POLITY. 77 

send chosen men [having chosen men from among 
themselves to send them*] of their own company to 
Antioch. ' ' The letter which they bore was addressed 
in the name of " the apostles and elders and breth- 
ren," evincing the participation of the Church in 
the Mission to Antioch. f On this point Neander 
remarks : '' It is evident that the first deacons, and 
the delegates who were authorized by the Church to 
accompany the apostles, were chosen by the Churches 
themselves. From these examples we may infer 
that a similar method was adopted in the appoint- 
ment of elders. "J 

The instances cited above are amply sufficient to 
determine in whose hands is deposited the right to 
appoint to office in a gospel Church. They are 
clear and explicit. The proof derived from them 
cannot, therefore, be invalidated by the citation of 
those equivocal cases upon which the abettors of 
prelacy have expended so much of their strength. 
No rule of interpretation is more indisputable, than 
that obscui^e portions of Scripture are to be explain- 
ed by those which are perspicuous. These remarks 
are applicable to the transaction referred to in Acts 

* Bloomfield. 

t Potter cuts the knot here, by rejecting " and'* from the 
the text, and reading "the apostles and elders, brethren/' 
The design of this artifice is obvious. Church Goyernment 
p. 291. London, 1839. 

X Pflantz und Leit. der eh. Kirche. S, 703. 
7* 



78 CHUKCH POLITY. 

14 : 23, 24. '' And when they, (Paul and Barna- 
bas) had ordained them elders in every Church," 
&c. Attempts have been made to sustain the doc- 
trine of popular rights, by showing that it is implied 
in the meanino* of the term ordained. Beza went 
so far as lo render the passage " when they had 
created elders by suffrage ; "* for which he has been 
severely censured by Campbell. t Many modern 
wi'iters have followed Beza's example.}: A recent 
advocate of episcopacy contends that the word does 
not necessarily imply a popular election. § In this 
I am compelled, on critical grounds, to concur. The 
term, (which is composed of two words signifying 
to lift up the hand,^ did originally signify to choose 
by suffrage, in accordance with the custom of the 
Greeks ; but it acquired, in common use, a secon- 
dary signification, and was employed to express an 
appointment in any way. It is manifestly so em- 
ployed by Josephus.|| It does not appear, there- 
fore, that any proof can be derived from this instance 
in favor of a popular election. With as little rea- 
son can it be employed on the other side. In a 
succinct history, like Luke's, it is not to be expected 
that he should enter into the details of every trans- 

* Quumque ipsi per sufFragia creassent presbyteros. 

t Gospels. Diss. 10 Part. 4, 7. 

J Coleman, p. 51. Punchard, p. 59. 

§ Chapin, Primitive Church, p. 155, New Haven, 1846. 

II Antiq. 1, 13, 2, 2. 



CHURCH POLITY. 79 

action which he records. It is sufficient that he 
has furnished us with indubitable instances of elec- 
tion to office by the sufFiages of the brethren. All 
other cases must be settled in conformity with the 
principle there kid down or exemplified, so that 
wherever he informs us that the apostles ordained 
elders, it is to be understood that it was with the 
consent and concurrence of the people.* 

On this point it has been well remarked by Hal- 
dane : * ' That the pastoral relation between teach- 
ers or pastors and a church can only be formed by 
mutual consent, is not only manifest from the con- 
duct of the Apostles recorded in the Scriptures, but 
is necessarily implied in the nature of this relation, 
considered in every view. It is not less absurd to 
maintain, that because we have no direct example 
of a church choosing its own elders, that this matter 
is left undetermined, than it would be to argue, that 
since the word of God has not declared the marriage 
union is to be entered into by mutual choice, it is 
doubtful whether this be required. /Such obvious 
principles as necessarily result from our nature and 

*"When Paul gives Titus power to appoint rulers of 
the Church," says Neander, " who had the requisite quali- 
ties, nothing is thereby determined as to the nature of the 
election ; it does not necessarily follow that an election by 
the Church itself is absolutely excluded." Church Hist., 
p. 108, Augusti. in Coleman. Antiq. p. 131. Neander, in 
Coleman's Prim. Ch. Introduction, p. 10. 



80 CHURCH POLITY. 

circumstances, are frequently taken for granted in 
Scripture." * 

The evidence in support of this position is so 
clear and full that it is admitted by the highest 
authorities in ecclesiastical history. 

** In those primitive times each Christian Church 
was composed of the 'people, the presiding officers, 
and the assistants or deacons. . . The highest au- 
thority was in the people, or the whole body of 
Christians. . . The assembled people, therefore, 
elected their own rulers and teachers, or by their 
authoritative consent, received them, when nomi- 
nated to them. They also, by their suffrages, re- 
jected or confirmed the laws that were proposed by 
their rulers, in their assemblies ; they excluded prof- 
ligate and lapsed brethren, and restored them ; they 
decided the controversies and disputes that arose ; 
they heard and determined the causes of presbyters 
and deacons ; in a word, the people did everything, 
that is proper for those in whom the supreme power 
of the comm^unity is vested." Mosheim, Ch. Hist. 
I. pp. 82, 143. 

** Each communicant, as member of the Church, 
had the right of taking part in all the transactions 
of that body, especially in the choice of the clergy, 
and in the discipline of the Church." Augusti, in 
Coleman's Antiq. p. 60. See also chap. 5. 

* View Soc. Worship, p. 210. 



CnUKCH POLITY. 81 

* • In ancient times there was not any small Church 
which had not a snfFrage in the choice of its pastor." 
Barrow on the Pope's Supremacy, Supp. 6, § 12. 

" In the earliest government of the first Christian 
society, that of Jerusalem, not the elders only, but 
the whole Church, were associated with the Apos- 
tles." Waddington, Ch. Hist. p. 41. 

* ' As it is plain, by the general epistles, that all 
Church power was in the people, so we find them, 
before these were written, exercising this power." 
Tindal, Eights of the Christian Church, chap. 4, 
§ 46, quoted in Hanbury's Historical Memorials, I. 
p. 9. London, 1839. 

**The discipline of Christian Churches was prim- 
itively popular. ' ' Harrington, Popular Government, 
B. 2, chap. 5.* 

3. It is the right and duty of a Church to inter- 
pret for itself the laws of Christ, and to enforce 
obedience, on the part of its members, to the system 
of faith and practice which it derives from the word 
of God. 

"The Socinians hold that, as the Scriptures are 
the rule of faith, the essential articles of faith are 
so few, so simple, and so easily gathered out of clear 
explicit passages, that it is impossible for any man 

* So also Hullman, KirchenTerfassung, S. 21, 196. Cur- 
tis, Bib. Episc. p. 129. Burton, Church Hist., ch. 12, p, 
252. Punchard, Hist, of Congregat. ch 10. 



82 CHURCH POLITY. 

who has the exercise of his reason to miss them ; 
that all mistakes and differences of opinion amongst 
those who search the Scriptures, respect points which 
are not essential, and concerning which it is both 
vain and hurtful to try to establish an uniformity of 
opinion ; that it is in all cases a suf&cient declaration 
of Christian faith to say that we believe the Scrip- 
tures ; that no harm can arise from allowing every 
man to interpret the Scriptures as he pleases ; and 
that, as Scripture may be sufficiently understood for 
the purposes of salvation, without any foreign as- 
sistance, all creeds and confessions of faith, com- 
posed and prescribed by human authority, are an 
encroachment upon the prerogative of the Supreme 
Teacher, an invasion of the right of private judg- 
ment, and a pernicious attempt to substitute the 
commandments of men in place of the doctrine of 
God. According to this plan, there is left to the 
Church, and its ministers, in their teaching, merely 
the office of exhortation." * 

Such is the substance of the argument against 
human creeds, against the right of a Church to 
maintain its own views of divine truth, and require 
a concurrence in them on the part of all who are 
received to its fellowship. This position of the So- 
cinians, the effect of a violent reaction against the 
extreme doctrine of the Papists, on the subject of 

* Hill's Divinity, p. 754. 



CHURCH POLITY. 83 

tradition and church power, has never received the 
sanction of the great body of Protestants, who have 
insisted, both by precept and practice, upon the right 
and duty of a Church to set forth the main articles 
of its belief, in what is usually called a confession of 
faith. This has been the practice of the Baptists, 
both in their primary organizations, as churches, and 
in their general combinations for the spread of the 
Redeemer's kingdom. The Baptists in Great Brit- 
ain, through the elders and brethren of upwards of 
a hundred churches, put forth, in the year 1689, a 
confession of faith, generally known as the Century 
Confession, together with a Catechism for the use 
of the young. These were adopted by the Phila- 
delphia Association, in this country, in 1742, and 
subsequently by the Charleston, Savannah River, 
and other Associations. As Associations are com- 
posed of delegates from the Churches, their acts 
merely expressed the will of these bodies. The 
General (Arminian) Baptists of Great Britain 
published their confession of faith in 1663.* 

* The Century Confession was republished, with other 
valuable matter, by Rev. D. Sheppard, Charleston, 1831. It 
coincides in doctrine with the "Westminster Confession, from 
which, indeed, it was taken ; and this latter was designed 
to be an exhibition of the faith of English Protestantism. 
Vid. Dr. Smyth's Hist. Westm. Assembly, Sec. 2. The 
copy of the Baptist Catechism in my possession, which is 
in fact the Shorter Catechism of the Assembly, adapted to 
our own views, in certain particulars, was published in 



84 CHURCH POLITY. 

The Century Confession embraces the following 
doctrhies : — The unity of God ; the existence of 
three equal persons in the Godhead ; the just con- 
demnation and total depravity of all mankind by the 
fall of our first parents ; eternal, personal, and uncon- 
ditional election ; the proper divinity of the Lord 
Jesus Christ ; the necessity of his atonement, and 
its special relation to the sins of the elect only ; 
justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ 
alone ; effectual calling ; perseverance of the saints ; 
believers' baptism by immersion only ; the Lord's 
Supper, a privilege peculiar to baptized believers, 
regularly admitted to Church fellowship ; the resur- 
rection of the body and general judgment ; the final 
happiness of the saints, and misery of the wicked, 
alike interminable ; the obligation of every intelli- 
gent creature to love God supremely, to believe 
what God says, and practise what God commands ; 
and the divme inspiration of the Old and New Tes- 
taments, as the complete and infallible rule of faith 
and practice.* 

Charleston, S. C, 1813. The Confession of the General 
Baptists, entitled, "A brief Confession or Declaration of 
Faith, set forth by an Assembly of Messengers, Elders, and 
Brethren of the Baptized Churches," may be seen in Grant- 
ham's Christianismus Primiti\Tis. London, 1678. 

* The above brief compend of doctrine was drawn up by 
the Rev. Dr. Dagg. The following document presents 
another very excellent digest of the Century Confession : 



CHURCH POLITY. J?0 

The reasons which are now assigned for departing 
from this time-honored custom, are not sufficiently 
cogent to justify such a course, especially as our 
churches are as much as ever exposed to the irrup- 
tion of a lax or false theology. It has been observ- 

ARTICLES OF FAITH 
Of the Mississippi River Baptist Association^ adopted Octo- 
ber 2d, 1846. 

1. "We believe in one triune God, the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost ; the same in essence, equal in power and 
glory. 

2. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
ment were given by the inspiration of God, and are the 
only rule of faith and practice. 

3. We believe in the fall of Adam from original rectitude ; 
in the imputation of his sin to a,ll his posterity ; in the total 
depravity of human nature, and in man's ina^bility to restore 
himself to the favor of God. 

4. We believe that God has loved his people with an 
everlasting love ; that he chose them in Christ before the 
foundation of the world ; that he called them with a holy 
and effectual calling; and, being justified alone by the 
righteousness of Christ imputed to them, they are kept by 
the power of God, through faith unto salvation. 

5. We believe there is one Mediator between God and 
man — the man Christ Jesus , who, by the satisfaction made 
to law and justice, in becoming an offering for sin, hath, by 
his most precious blood, redeemed the elect from under the 
curse of the law; that they might be holy and without 
blame before him in love. 

6. We believe that good works are the fruits of faith, and 
follow after justification, and are evidences of a gracious 
state ; and that all believers are bound to obey every com- 
mand of God from a principle of love. 

8 



86 CHURCH POLITY. 

ed by a writer who argues against *Hhe propriety 
of having any human selection or compilation, as a 
standard of faith and practice '' : — ** If it be said 
that the compilation thus prepared contains what is 
in the Bible, the question comes up, why then form 

7*. We believe in the resurrection of the dead, and a gen- 
eral judgment ; tha,t the happiness of the righteous and the 
punishment of the wicked will be everlasting. 

GOSPEL ORDER. 

1. "We believe that the visible Church of Jesus Christ is a 
congregation of faithful persons, who have given themselves 
to the Lord, and to one another, by the will of God and 
have covenanted to keep up a godly discipline, agreeably to 
the gospel. 

2. We believe that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, 
the only Lawgiver ; that the government is with the Church. 

3. That Baptism and the Lord's Supper are Gospel ordi- 
nances, appointed by Jesus Christ, and are to be continued 
in his Church until his second coming. 

4. That the immersion of the body in water, in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is 
the only Scriptural way of Baptism, as taught by Christ 
and his Apostles. 

5. That none but regularly baptized Church members, 
who live a holy life, have a right to partake of the Lord's 
Supper. 

6. That it is the privilege and duty of all believers to 
make a public profession of their faith, by submitting them- 
selves as subjects for baptism, and as members of the visi- 
ble Church. 

7. That it is the duty of every regularly organized Church 
to expel from her communion all disorderly and immoral 
members, and who hold doctrines contrary to the Scriptures. 



CHURCH POLITY. 87 

the compilation? Why not use the Bible as the 
standard. Can man present God's system in a se- 
lection and compilation of some of its parts, better 
than God himself has done it, as a whole, in His 
own book ? Suppose the legislature should select 
portions of the constitution of the State, and com- 
pile them into a book, and set it forth as the stand- 
ard by which its laws should be made. Would the 
people allow it?"* 

This objection proceeds upon an erroneous con- 
ception of the nature and design of a creed. It is 
not a compilation of some of the parts of God's 
system, nor does it consist of select portions of the 
Scriptures. It is a digest of the whole, presenting 
in a small compass, and in the shape of distinct pro^ 
positions, the great principles which constitute the 
system of revealed truth. In the Bible, these prin- 
ciples are not merely exhibited, they are expounded 
and defended at large. Moreover, a creed is not 
intended to supersede the word of God, as the 
standard of faith and practice ; for it derives its val- 
idity and authority solely from its agreement with 
that word. It is a standard or rule of faith only in 
a secondary sense, and only to those who adopt it as 
the exponent of their views. It does not create, it 
simply expresses the truth ; and is to be viewed, not 
in the light of an authority but a testimony. The 

* Dr. Johnson, Gospel Developed, p 197. 



88 CHURCH POLITY. 

adoption of a creed on the part of a church indicates 
not what is to be, but what is abeady believed. It 
is an expression of its cordial reception of the truth, 
and '* sets forth in order a declaration of those things 
which are most surely believed among" its mem- 
bers.* 

The right of a Church to frame for itself a sum- 
mary of Christian doctrine is evident from the na- 
ture of its organization. If *'two cannot walk 
together except they be agreed," much less can 
professors of Christianity constitute a harmonious 
and efficient body, unless they concur in their views 
of what Christianity is. If it be proper for them 
to have correct views, if is proper to express them ; 
and if it be proper to express them orally, it is 
equally so to express them in a written form. 
Again, each member of a church is bound to bear 
his testimony to the truth. But with what show of 
reason can it be affirmed that a duty^ which is in- 
cumbent on members of a Church, in an individual, 
is not obligatory upon them in a collective capacity ? 

* Luke 1:1. A creed is not norma normans, but norma 
normata. It contains the very kernel and essence of the 
Scriptures — ipsa medulla scripturse. Of confessions of 
faith it has been well said — non imprimunt nobis credenda, 
sed exprimunt a nobis credita. Twesten, Yorlesungen. !• 
§ 21, S. 296. Or, as Turretine has it, they are normce secttn- 
darice, non veritatis sed, doctrinm in aliqua ecclesia receptee, 
quoniam ex illis quid cum ecclesise doctrina conveniat, 
quidve ab ea discrepet, perspici potest et dijudicari. Theol. 
Elenc. Loc. XVIII. Qu^st. 30, § 9. 



OHtJRCH POLITY, 89 

It has been proved that a Church is charged with.the 
discipline of its members, in reference both to faith 
and to practice. In a case of discipline, who is to 
pronounce judgment — the Church, or the party- 
accused ? To this question there can be but one 
reply. The Church, in the exercise of its legiti- 
mate prerogative, is to decide as to what is truth, and 
what constitutes a departure from the faith. But 
if a Church possesses this right, when an offender 
stands arraigned before it, it must have possessed 
the right previously, — the right to define its views 
of Scriptural truth, and require its members to con- 
form to the same. *' It has been asked,'' says An- 
drew Fuller, *'by persons who disapprove of all 
church proceedings, on account of difference in re- 
ligious principles, who is to judge what is heresy? 
We answer, those who are to judge what is immo- 
rality, in dealing with loose characters. To suppose 
it impossible to judge what heresy is, or to deny 
that the power of so deciding rests in a Christian 
Church, is to charge the apostolic precept with im- 
pertinence.'' * Again: '* If a Christian society 
have no right to judge what is truth, and to render 
an agreement with them in certain points a term of 
communion, then neither have they a right to judge 
what is righteousness, nor to render an agreement 

♦Works, II. p. 466 Boston, 1833. 

8* 



90 CHURCH POLITY. 

in matters of practical right and wrong a term of 
communion." * 

Such being the unquestionable right of a Church, 
it simply remains to show that there is an obvious 
propriety and duty in having " human compila- 
tions,'' or summaries of doctrine. " Whether the 
united sentiments of a Christian society be ex- 
pressed in writing or not, is imm-aterial, provided, 
they be mutually understood and avowed. Some 
societies have no written articles of faith or disci- 
pline ; but with them, as with others that have, 
it is always understood that there are certain 
principles, a professed belief of which is deemed 
necessary to communion." f I^ will be perceived 
that the writing of Articles of Faith is accidental, 
not essential, and involves no principle which is not 
implied in holding them. 

In the decision of this question, regard must be 
had to the dictates of reason and the lessons of 
experience. Had the author of revelation been 
pleased to give us truth, in naked propositions, ar- 
ranged with scientific symmetry, in a regular system, 
the necessity of framing such a system for ourselves 
would never have existed. But he has not so 
chosen ; and in this respect, there is a beautiful har- 
mony between nature and revelation, indicating that 

* Works, II. p. 630. 

t Fuller, Works, II. p. 630. 



CHURCH POLITY. 91 

both proceed from the same divine author. x\s in 
nature (to select a single example), the various 
vegetable productions which beautify the surface of 
the earth, and adorn the caverns of the sea, are not 
found arranged with reference to their respective 
genera and species, according to the classification of 
the botanist, but are scattered promiscuously over 
the globe, soliciting the labor of science to classify 
them, and rewarding it by unfolding new and glori- 
ous views of the wisdom, power, and benevolence 
of the Deity, so the truths of revelation, the several 
parts of a beautiful and glorious system, lie scattered 
over the pages of the Bible, to be gathered by the 
hand of pious diligence, and reared into a temple to 
the divine glory. This method subserves the pur- 
poses of moral probation and discipline ; for the char- 
acter of the system which each inquirer derives from 
the Bible depends, in a great measure, upon the 
moral qualifications with which he consults its sacred 
pages. 

Were the results of such inquiries always the 
same, did the various bodies which profess our com- 
mon religion hold the same sentiments, specific 
Articles of Faith might be dispensed with ; but when 
it is remembered that these bodies, although they 
take their position upon a common platform — the 
word of God — profess diverse and even opposite 
sentiments, the necessitv of such articles is evinced 



92 CHURCH POLITY. 

by the most plain and cogent considerations. Our 
Lord warned his disciples against false prophets, who 
would come in sheep' s clothing, while inwardly they 
were ravening wolves. The Apostles witnessed the 
fulfilment of his predictions; and their epistles 
abound with complaints of false teachers, who cor- 
rupted the word of God, brought in damnable here- 
sies, subverted whole houses, and wrested the Scrip- 
tures to their own destruction.* Against these, 
Christians are exhorted to ** contend earnestly for 
the faith once delivered to the saints," and to be on 
their guard against *'the sleight of men and cun- 
ning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to de- 
ceive." f These and similar directions ** teach 
clearly that an acknowledgment of the truth of 
Scripture is not a sufficient security for soundness 
of faith, because they state a perversion of Scripture 
by those who have received it, as not only a possible 
case, but as a case which then actually existed ; and 
consequently they imply that it is lawful for the 
ministers of religion (and the churches) to employ 
some additional guard to that * form of sound words,' 
which they are required to hold fast and defend." J 
These observations expose the futility of the demand 

* Matt. 6:5. 2 Cor. 2 : 17. 2 Tim. 2 : 18. Titus 1 : 11. 
2 Peter 3 : 3-16. IJohn 4 : 6. 
t Eph. 4 : 13. Heb. 13 : 7. Tit. 1:9. 
J Hill's Divinity, p. 756. 



CHUIICH POLITY. 93 

which is sometimes made, that Confessions of Faith 
should be expressed in the language of Scripture, 
or in general terms. " The very purpose for which 
they are composed being to guard against error, it 
is plain that they become nugatory if they deliver 
the truths of religion in those words of Scripture 
which had been perverted, or in terms so general as 
to include both the error and the truth." * 

The only plausible objection which is urged 
against the use of human creeds as the condition of 
Church fellowship, is that it restricts freedom of in- 
quiry, and interferes with the rights of conscience. 
**If," says Andrew Fuller, ''a subscription to 
Articles of Faith were required without examination, 
or enforced by civil penalties, it would be an un- 
warrantable impositition on the rights of conscience. 
But if an explicit agreement in what may be deem- 
ed fundamental principles be judged essential to 
fellowship, this is only requiring that a man appear 
to be a Christian, before he can have a right to be 
treated as such. Suppose it were required of a 
Jew or an infidel, before he is admitted to the Lord's 
Supper (which either might be disposed to solicit 
for some worldly purpose), that he must previously 

* Hill, p. 760. It is well known from the history of her- 
esy, that the use of Scripture language, in a sense opposed 
to orthodoxy, is one of the most common disguises of 
errorists ; and as to the use of general terms, it has been 
the refuge of heresy in all ages. 



94 CHURCH POLITY. 

become a believer. Should we thereby impose Christ- 
tianity upon him ? He might claim the right of 
private judgment, and deem such a requisition in- 
compatible with its admission ; but it is evident that 
he could not be entitled to Christian regard, and 
that, while he exclaimed against the imposition of 
creeds and systems, he himself would be guilty of an 
imposition of the grossest kind, utterly inconsistent 
with the rights of voluntary and social compact, as 
well as of Christian liberty." * 

The use of a confession of faith, so far from dis- 
paraging the authority of the Bible, as a standard, 
really exalts it. It insists upon a correct interpretation 
of the word of God, a cordial reception of its truths, 
and an entire submission to its directions. A Church', 
rearing this rampart around the sacred volume, guard- 
ing every entrance with jealous vigilance, and care- 
fully questioning every comer who essays to gain ad- 

* Works, II. p. 629-630. " The persons most ready to 
bring forward this objection are those whose system ex- 
cludes some of the doctrines which the great body of Pro- 
testants agree in receiving. In their manner of stating 
the objection, they are careful to conceal their disbelief of 
particular doctrines, under a zeal for liberty of conscience, 
and the right of private judgment ; and instead of affirming 
that a confession declares what is false, they choose rather 
to say, that by the particularity with which it states the 
received opinion, it abridges and invades that freedom in 
every thing that concerns religion, which Christians derive 
from the spirit of the gospel." Hill, Divinity, p. 760. 



CmrRCH POLITY. 



95 



mission under false colors and witli *' feigned words," 
protects the divine repository of truth against the in- 
sidious artifices of those who would corrupt it or han- 
dle it deceitfully. If they choose to wifest the Scrip- 
tures to their own destruction, the responsibility 
rests with themselves. The Church will never fra- 
ternize with them in their unholy designs, nor suffer 
them to pollute her sacred enclosure. Thus she fulfils 
her high mission as the '* pillar and ground of the 
truth.'' As pillars, in ancient time, bore the writ- 
ten edicts of the potentates of the earth, '' seen and 
read of all men," so the Church stands forth, with 
the great principles of divine truth graven upon her 
front, — the living, faithful witness of her invisible 
king. 

Such are some of the reasons which justify the 
Churches in the use of definite articles of faith. The 
custom is thought by some inquirers into the usao-es 
of antiquity, to have been apostolical, or, at least, 
sanctioned by apostolic precedent. It is supposed 
that the sermon on the mount, which presents a di- 
gested system of Christian ethics, the Lord's Prayer, 
the use of the baptismal formula, and the allusion to 
a*' form of sound words," — all point to such an 
observance. But however this may be, we possess 
incontestible evidence that, soon after the age of the 
apostles, when the rise of heresies began to threaten 
the peace and purity of the Churches, it was deemed 



96* CHURCH POLITY. 

necessary to embrace the leading facts and princi- 
ples of the Gospel in a compendious system, and 
present them, for concurrence or subscription, to 
candidates for baptism a:id church fellowship ; * 
and in all succeeding times, the supporters of truth 
against error have deemed it their sacred duty to 
bear their explicit and unequivocal testimony, in 
terms which neither friends nor enemies could mis- 
interpret ; some of them, in circumstances in which 
a mere general assent to the truth of the Scriptures, 
would have saved them from the appalling agonies 
of martyrdom. t 

The propriety of the course which has been adopt- 
ed by Christian Churches, with reference to a formal 
enunciation of their distinctive principles, is illus- 
trated and confirmed by analagous procedures in 

* Coleman's Christian Antiq. p. 253. " From the earliest 
organization of the Church, some confession and rule of 
faith must evidently have been necessary. This rule of 
faith must have been derived from the teaching, either oral 
or vrritten, of the apostles ; and may have been earlier than 
the writings of the New Testament in their present form. 
Luke 1 : 1 — 4. Gal. 1 : 11. As the preaching of the Apos- 
tles preceded their written instructions, so an oral confes- 
sion may have preceded a written one, comprising an epit- 
ome Qf the gospel. From such a source may have sprung 
the great variety of forms which were known previous to 
the council of Nice." 

t Mosheim, Ch. Hist. I. chap. 3. Gieseler, I. § 49. Mtin- 
scher (Ed. Yon Coin), I. § 12. Barrow's Works (Am. Ed.), 
II. p. 569. 



CHURCH POLITY. 97 

other bodies. Thus the goyernment of the United 
States is administered, according to the provisions of 
a written constitution. Under this constitution dif- 
ferent parties have arisen, sustaining the same rela- 
tion to it which the various denominations of Chris- 
tians sustain to the Scriptures. It is not deemed 
sufficient by any one of these parties, to require, on 
the part of its adherents, a simple subscription to 
the constitution ; for this is the common basis of 
them all. Each party sets forth its own construc- 
tion of the constitution, and states distinctly the 
principles upon which it is based. If an individual 
were to suffer himself to be chosen as a representa- 
tive of one of these parties, and were then to betray 
their confidence, by giving his support to the meas- 
ures of another, in vain would he plead in justifica- 
tion of his treachery, that the constitution was his 
political confession of faith ; all parties alike would 
denounce him as a deceiver. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHURCHES. 

It has already been proved, that, according to 
the Scriptures, each Church of Christ is charged 
with the reception and discipline of its members, 
the election of its officers, and the general manage- 
ment of its affairs. This being the case, the inde- 
pendence of the Churches follows as a necessary 
consequence. The simplicity of this system of 
organization may not comport with the suggestions 
of human expediency. A more close and extensive 
combination, which should consolidate the Churches, 
fuse them into a compact and homogeneous mass, 
and centralize power in the hands of a select body, 
or of an individual, as the representative of sove- 
reignty, may be preferred as best suited to develope 
and combine the energies of its component parts. 
But if this be the system which Divine wisdom has 
chosen, it is doubtless the wisest and the best. 
Experience has proved it to be so. It agrees best 
with the free spirit of Christianity, and is best 
adapted to the development of Christian life in the 
individual. It combines greater advantages, and is 
embarrassed with fewer difficulties, than any system 
which human ingenuity, pride, or the lust of power 
has ever devised. 



CHURCH POLITY. 



i9 



It has been supposed that the transaction record- 
ed in Acts 15, furnishes a precedent for a higher 
tribunal than a single independent Church. Writ- 
ers on ecclesiastical polity have detected in the 
meeting at Jerusalem, a court of review, a synod or 
a general council, according to the bias with which 
they have, respectively, contemplated it. There is 
no just foundation for any of these suppositions. 
The case was altogether an extraordinary one. It 
sprung out of an exigency which could only occur 
in the incipient state of Christianity ; and cannot, 
therefore, be pleaded in justification of subsequent 
assemblies, which undertake to legislate for the 
Churches, review their acts, and reverse their decis- 
ions. ** In the above case there was no council of 
Churches held by their delegates. One Church 
sends messengers to ask information on a given sub- 
ject. The answer is satisfactorily returned, and the 
instructions of the Holy Ghost are added concerning 
points of duty, in which all the Churches were inter- 
ested. What assemblage of men, uninspired of 
God, can now say, " The Holy Ghost puts his seal 
to the decree which we send you, and you must keep 
it?" The above case then furnishes neither ex- 
ample nor authority for authoritative councils of 
Churches by their delegates."* 

* Dr. "W. B. Johnson. A Church of Christ, a Sermon, 
p. 26. Ripley and Barnes in loc. Curtis, Bib. Episc. p 131. 



100 CHURCH POLITY. 

The independence of the Churches is attested by 
the highest authorities in Church history, as well as 
by many other distinguished writers. 

" All the Churches in those primitive times were 
independent bodies ; or none of them subject to the 
jurisdiction of any other. For, though the Churches 
which were founded by the apostles themselves, fre- 
quently had the honor shown them, to be consulted 
in difficult and doubtful cases, yet they had no 
judicial authority, no control, no power of giving 
laws. On the contrary, it is as clear as the noon- 
day, that all Christian Churches had equal rights, 
and were in all respects on a footing of equality. 
Nor does there appear in this first century, any 
vestige of that consociation of the Churches of the 
same province, which gave rise to ecclesiastical 
councils and to metropolitans. Rather, as is mani- 
fest, it was not till the second century that the 
custom of holding ecclesiastical councils began, first 
in Greece, and thence extended into other prov- 
inces." Mosheim, I. pp. 86, 142. cf Gieseler, I. 
p. 103. King, ch. 8. 

*' Every Church had its own spiritual head or 
bishop, and was independent of every other Church 
with respect to its own internal regulations." Bur- 
ton, Hist. Ch. p. 262, New York, 1839.* 

* Dr. Burton is an Episcopalian. How different the 
language of another writer of- the same Church, who has 



CHURCH POLITY. lOl 

** Every society of Christians formed within itself 
a separate and independent republic." Gibbon, 1, 
p. 273. 

*' It is certain that during the first century from 
the death of Christ, the several Churches which had 
been instituted by the apostles, or their successors, 
were entirely independent of each other." Tytler, 
Universal History, 2, p. 4. Guizot, Hist. Civiliza- 
tion, p. 52. 

Some objections have been urged against the 
independent polity, which demand at least a passing 
notice. These are : — 

1. It destroys the visible unity of the Church.* 
It has been proved, in a former chapter of this 
work, that the visible Church Catholic is a figment 
of the imagination, destitute of Scriptural authority. 
If this be the case, the objection possesses no 
weight. The only kind of ecclesiastical unity con- 
templated in the Scriptures can be as well secured 
among independent Churches as any others. The 
principle of Christian union is the law of love. 
This divine element pervades the bosoms of all 
true followers of the Redeemer, and unites the 

ventured to assert that " the system of Independency is 
totally without the remotest support from either Scripture 
or Antiquity." Townsend, N. T. Part 4, note 2. 

* Dick, Theol. 2, p. 491. Hill, p. 695. Smyth, Cate- 
chism, p. 103, where, also, may be found the other objec- 
tions which are here examined. 
9* 



102 CHURCH POLITY. 

various societies, into which they are divided, in one 
affectionate sisterhood. No other decrees are neces- 
sary to perpetuate this union, except the solemn 
command of their divine Master ; and all attempts 
to effect the result by authoritative decisions of 
councils or coercive measures will prove abortive, or 
at best secure only a constrained and deceptive uni- 
formity, the uniformity, not of faith and love, but 
of hypocrisy or servitude. Ecclesiastical systems, 
the growth of worldly policy, and stamped with the 
wisdom of human expediency, may dove-tail the 
Churches together, so as to present a vast and im- 
posing visible confederation : the power of divine 
love alone can weld them in spiritual unity, and 
make them one family of Christ. 

2. Another objection urged agamst our Church 
polity, is that it places too much power in the hands 
of the people. It is alledged that many Christian 
Churches are incapable of self-government; and 
one writer particularly deprecates, with pious fervor, 
the idea of ''referring every decision to numbers 
and suffrages, and placing all that is good, and 
venerable, and influential among the members them- 
selves, at the feet of a democracy ^^ It is readily 
admitted that the Bible system of Church govern- 

* R. Watson, Institutes part 4, chap 1. Mr. Wesley 
said: "We are no republicans; " and his followers seem 
content to repeat the confession. 



CHURCH POLITY. 103 

ments is suited only to a Bible constituency.* If 
churches are composed only of such as give credible 
evidence of having been taught by the Spirit of 
God, they may safely be entrusted with the manage- 
ment of their own interests. But when the door of 
admission is thrown wide open, and merely nominal 
professors are introduced, it becomes necessary to co- 
erce and restrain them by powers higher than them- 
selves ; to curb them by courts and councils, or 
awe them by a hierarchy. It will generally be 
found that in proportion to the facility of admission 
into any Church is the stringency of its government. 
The Baptists recognize only believers as the constit- 
uents of a gospel Church and commit its govern- 
ment to its members. The Presbyterians, who, 
although they consider infants as** in some sort" 
members of the Chm^ch, yet exclude all but believ- 
ers from full membership, are essentially republican 
in their form of government. They elect their own 
rulers. The Methodists receive applicants to their 
communion without the requisition of personal piety ; 
and then excluding them from all participation in 
the government of the Church, rule them by clerical 
conferences. The Koman Catholics would cheer- 
fully admit to the Church, by baptism, the whole 
human family, and then proceed to erect over them 

* Curtis, Bib. Episc, Lee. 6. 



104 OHtTRCH POLITY. 

a ghostly tyranny, reducing them to due subjection 
by the rack, the stake, purgatory, and hell. 

3. It is further alledged against the system of 
Independency, that it unfits the Church to perform, 
in her distinctive character, and through her own 
organization, her appropriate duty of extending the 
kingdom of the Redeemer throughout the world. 
To this it is sufficient to reply by an appeal to facts. 
The Churches of the New Testament were, as has 
been proved, constituted on this principle, and yet 
within a century after the death of Christ, they had 
pushed the conquests of his cross to the remotest 
limits of the civilized world. It is an indubitable 
fact that, in modern times, Churches founded on 
the principles of Congregationalism, gave the first 
impulse to the missionary enterprise ; and they are, 
at the present moment, acting a conspicuous part in 
all the great religious movements of the age. Their 
sovereignty, as independent bodies, presents no ob- 
stacle to their cooperation in measures of common 
utility, in education, Bible and Tract distribution, 
and in general movements for the spread of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom. 



CHAPTER IX 



OFFICERS OF A CHURCH. 



The permanent officers of a Church are of two 
kinds : elders (who are also called pastors, teachers, 
ministers, overseers or bishops) and deacons. 

The Scriptures furnish us with an enumeration of 
all the gifts which were bestowed upon the apostolic 
churches. They mention apostles, prophets, evan- 
gelists, pastors, and teachers; deacons, miracles, 
gifts of healing, helps, governments, and diversities 
of tongues.* It is evident that many of these must 
have been extraordinary, designed to meet the 
peculiar exigences of Christianity in its incipient 
efforts for diffusion. That miraculous and prophetic 
gifts have ceased is unquestionable. So have others. 
It was the design of Christ to provide for only two 
permanent officers in the Churches, bishops and 
deacons. 

It has been strenuously contended that the apos- 
tolic office is permanent, and that it is continued in 
a succession of Bishops who profess a superiority 
in ministerial power and rights over the elders and 
the Churches. The weakness of this assumption 

* 1 Cor. 12 : 28 ; Eph. 4 : 11. Neander, Apos. Church, ch. 5. 



106 CHURCH PaLlTT. 

can be easily exposed. The qualifications of an 
apostle were such as none of their pretended suc- 
cessors can be shown to have possessed. 

1. The apostles were witnesses of Christ. To 
qualify them for this important office, our blessed 
Lord selected the twelve as his personal attend- 
ants, communicated to them his plans and purposes, 
and made them the witnesses of his crucifixion, res- 
urrection and ascension. These are the great facts 
upon which the Christian religion is founded. It 
was indispensable, therefore, that they should be 
sustained by the most clear and unimpeachable 
testimony. To bear this testimony, and thus lay 
the foundation of the glorious edifice of the Christian 
faith, was the primary and peculiar design of the 
apostolic office. *' He ordained twelve, that they 
should be with him, and that he might send them 
forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses 
and to cast out devils:" — Mark 3: 14; Matt. 
10 : 5. The same view is presented by Christ, 
after his resurrection. In his last interview with 
his disciples, he thus addressed them : ** Thus it is 
written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to 
rise from the dead the third day ; and that repent- 
ance and remission of sins should be preached in 
his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 
And ye are witnesses of these things." Luke 24 : 
45 — 48. So the Saviour spoke, and so the apos- 



CHURCH POLITY. 107 

ties understood hiiri. This is manifest from the 
words of Peter, when an apostle was about to be 
selected to fill the vacancy occasioned by the defec- 
tion of Judas. '* Of these men which have com- 
panied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went 
in and out among us, beginning from the baptism 
of John, unto that same day that he was taken up 
from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with 
us, of his resurrection." — Acts 1 : 21, 22. That 
this was the distinctive character of the office, is 
further evinced by the account which is given of the 
labors of the apostles. *^This Jesus hath God 
raised up, whereof we are witnesses, ^^ Acts 2 : 
32; 5: 32; 10: 39— 41, etc. 

The represeiJtation which has been given of the 
apostolic office derives strong confirmation from the 
case of the apostle Paul. He was called to the 
apostleship aiter the ascension of Christ. He had 
not had, therefore, that opportunity for personal, 
observation which was necessary to qualify him to 
be a witness of Christ. How was this defect sup- 
plied ? By supernatural revelation. Christ appeared 
to him on his way to Damascus, and transformed a 
bitter persecutor into a noble and unflinching apos- 
tle of his cause. We have three distinct accounts 
of his conversion and of his appointment to the 
apostolate. In each of these the design of the of- 
fice is stated. ** The God of our fathers hath 



108 CHURCH POLITY. 

chosen thee;" said Ananias to the future apostle of 
the Gentiles, *'that thou shouldst know his will, 
and see that Just One, and shouldst hear the voice 
of his mouth ; for thou shalt be his loitness unto 
all men of what thou hast seen and heard." — Acts 
22 : 14, 15. *' I have appeared unto thee for this 
purpose, to make thee a minister and a ivitness.^^ — 
Acts 26 : 16. This latter was the language of 
Christ to Paul in the original commission. That it 
was understood by the apostle himself in the man- 
ner in which it has just been represented, is manifest 
from his own subsequent appeal in 1 Cor.*9 : 2. In 
reply to those who challenged his claims to this 
high office, he asks most triumphantly: ** Have I 
not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? " Nothing can be 
more clear than that to have seen Jesus Christ was 
an indispensable qualification for the office of the 
apostleship, and that its main design was to bear 
witness to the cardinal facts of Christianity.* 

2. The apostles were distinguished by special 
prerogatives, which descended to none after them ; 
receiving their mission directly from Christ. The 

* Barnes, Episc. Exam. p. 26. Curtis, Bib. Episc. Lee. 
2. Punchard, p. 71. Smyth, Pres. and Prel. chap. 4. Hal- 
dane, chap. 7. Bacon, Manual, p. 32. Campbell, Eccl. 
Hist. Lee. 5. Even Townsend, an Episcopalian, says, that 
to be made " a witness of the resurrection with us " is 
equivalent to " being raised to the apostolate." N. T. part 
9, note 2. 



CHURCH POLITY. 109 

power of conferring the extraordinary gifts of the 
Spirit, and the knowledge, by inspiration, of the 
whole doctrine of Christ. 

3. They were universal bishops ; the whole of 
Christendom was their charge, and the whole earth 
their diocese. 

4. We have full proof that no idea of succes- 
sion to the office was entertained in their own age, 
or in the times immediately succeeding ; for no one, 
on the death of one apostle, was ever substituted in 
his place ; and when the original college became 
extinct, the title also became extinct. The apostles 
were the ambassadors of Christ. Having delivered 
their message, and committed it to writing for the 
future use of the churches, their office became ob- 
solete at their decease, and it was unnecessary that 
successors should be appointed.* 

A fatal objection to the notion of apostolic suc- 
cession, and the consequences derived from it, con- 
sists in the fact, that no such succession can be 
established by historical evidence. The links of 
the chain are broken, and lost beyond the possibility 
of recovery. The transmission of apostolic grace 
is no longer practicable ; for the wires of the mystic 
telegraph are disconnected, tangled, and, along a 
portion of the pretended line, nowhere to be found. 

The vanity of the episcopal claim to an uninter- 

*Eph. 2 : 20. Rev. 21 : 14. 

10 



110 CHURCH POLITY. 

rupted apostolical succession has been happily ex- 
posed by Archbishop Whately. 

*' There is not a minister in all Christendom, who 
is able to trace up, with any approach to certainty, 
his own spiritual pedigree. The sacramental virtue 
(for such it is that is implied, whether the term be 
used or not in the principle I have been speaking 
of) dependent on the imposition of hands, with a 
due observance of apostolical usages, by a bishop, him- 
self duly consecrated, after having been in like man- 
ner baptized into the church, and ordained deacon 
and priest ; this sacramental virtue, if a single link 
of the chain be faulty, must, on the above princi- 
ples, be utterly nullified forever after, in respect of 
all the links that hang on that one. For if a bishop 
has not been duly consecrated, or had not been, 
previously, rightly ordained, his ordinations are 
null, and so are the ministrations of those ordained 
by him, and their ordination of others (supposing 
any of the persons ordained by him to attain to the 
episcopal office) ; and so on, without end. The 
poisonous taint of informality, if it once creep in 
undetected, will spread the infection of nullity to an 
indefinite and irremediable extent. 

''And who can undertake to pronounce, that 
during that long period, usually designated as the 
Dark Ages, no such taint ever was introduced ? Ir- 
regularities could not have been wholly excluded, 



CHURCH POLITY. Ill 

without a perpetual miracle ; and that no such mir- 
aculous interference existed, we have even historical 
proof. Amidst the numerous corruptions of doctrine 
and of practice, and gross superstitions that crept 
i^ during those ages, we find recorded descriptions, 
not only of the profound ignorance and profligacy 
of life of many of the clergy, but also of the gross- 
est irregularity in respect of discipline and form. 
We read of bishops, consecrated when mere chil- 
dren ; of men officiating who barely knew their 
letters ; of prelates expelled, and others put in their 
places by violence ; of illiterate and profligate lay- 
men, and habitual drunkards, admitted to holy 
orders ; and, in short, of the prevalence of every 
kind of disorder, and reckless disregard of the 
decency which the apostle enjoins. It is inconceiv- 
able, that any one, even moderately acquainted with 
history, can feel a certainty, or any approach to 
certainty, that, amidst all confusion and corruption, 
every requisite form was, in every instance, strictly 
adhered to by men, many of them openly profane 
and secular, unrestrained by public opinion, through 
the gross ignorance of the population among which 
they lived ; and that no one, not duly consecrated 
or ordained, was admitted to sacred offices." * 
The attempt to prove that an order existed in 

* Kingdom of Christ, p. 128. The argument is stated with 
great force, by Chillingworth. Chap. II. Answer, §§ 64 — 68. 



112 CHURCPI POLITY. 

the ministry of the primitive churches as successors 
to the apostles, and therefore superior to elders, 
proves a failure. We may therefore consider it as 
comprising only elders and deacons. These are all 
that the Head of the Church' has embraced in its 
ordinary and permanent organization. Even these 
are not indispensable. The Church at Jerusalem 
was in existence some time before it was found nec- 
essary to institute the order of deacons ; and many 
other churches seem to have had no officers of either 
description. Paul and Barnabas, in their first mis- 
sionary excursion from Antioch, passed through 
Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia, and planted 
churches. After the lapse of about four years, 
they returned through those regions, "confirming 
the souls of the disciples," and " ordaining them 
elders in every Church." Up to this period, there- 
fore, there had been no elders in the churches. The 
same is true of other churches. It would seem, 
therefore, that "the officers of a church are not 
essential to its being, though they are to its well 
being."* 

The apostolic churches seem, in general, to have 
had a plurality of elders as well as deacons. The 
apostle addressed his epistle to the Church at Phil- 
ippi "with the bishops and deacons;" sent for 

* Bacon, Church Manual, p. 35. Discipline, Charleston 
Association, chap. 2. Walker, Church Discipline, $ 2. 



CHURCH POLITY. 113 

''the elders of the Church at Ephesus ; " and Paul 
and Barnabas as well as Titus "ordained elders" 
in the churches of Asia Minor and Crete. It seems, 
therefore, a fair inference that this was their usual 
practice. Of the reason of it we are not informed ; 
but the existence of the practice seems unquestiona- 
ble. Perhaps the explanation given by Elsley and 
others is the most satisfactory. " In that age," he 
remarks, *' Christians had no public edifices, but 
held their meetings in private houses. When they 
were numerous, these meetings, and the inspectors 
or bishops who presided over them, were multiplied 
in proportion."* The number of officers, whether 
elders or deacons, necessary to the completeness of 
a church, is not determined in Scripture. This 
must be decided by the circumstances of each case, 
of which the party interested is the most competent 
judge. 

A distinction has sometimes been made between 
teaching and ruling elders. This was formerly the 

*Aiinotation on the Gospels and Acts, p. 562 In proof of 
a plurality of elders see Haldane, ch. 7, p. 210 — 224. — Smyth, 
Name, Nature, &c., of Huling Elders, p. 38. Coleman Prim- 
itive Church, chap. 6. Bacon, Manual, p. 39. — "Wood's Lec- 
tures on Church Government, p. 50. Gieseler, Church 
History, 1, 29. Neander, Apostolic Church, p. 35, 92. 
Milman History Christ, p 194—199. " The plurality of 
ministers over the same church continued, even to the 
fourth century, to be the order of the churches." Planck 
Gesell, Verfass, 1, 551. 

10* 



114 CHURCH POLITY. 

custom of Congregational churclies, and obtains, at 
the present time, in the Presbyterian Church. For 
the support of this distinction, the passages of 
Scripture principally relied on are 1 Tim. 5 : 17 ; 
1 Cor. 12 : 28.* The latter passage is too indefinite 
in its phraseology to establish the distinction, and 
would probably never have been supposed to contain 
it, had not an erroneous interpretation of the former 
passage previously led to the belief that such a dis- 
tinction really existed. The passage in the first 
epistle to Timothy reads as follows: *'Let the 
elders that rule well be counted worthy of double 
honor, especially they who labor in the word and 
doctrine. '^ The attempt to establish the distinction 
in question on the authority of this passage, is en- 
cumbered with many and weighty difficulties. (1.) 
The appellation elder is, every where else, used to 
designate ministers of the Gospel. It is inter- 
changed with Ushop, and must therefore refer to 
the same officer. The qualifications necessary for 
a teacher are the same as those of presbyters. It 
was, therefore, foreign to the design of the apostle 
to draw the line contended for between ruling and 
teaching elders, and confine the members of each 
division to a particular sphere of duty.t That the 

* Calvin, Com. in loc. Smyth, Ecclesiastical Catechism, 
chap. 3, § 6. Miller, Presbyterianism, p. 58. 
t 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1 : 9. 



CHURCH POLITY. 115 

term elder is used only with reference to teachers or 
ministers of the Gospel, is conceded by many advo- 
cates of the Presbyterian polity.* (2.) The Scrip- 
tures connect teaching and ruling together as 
the appropriate work of those to whom the care of 
the churches is committed. *' We beseech you to 
know them which labor among you and are over 
you in the Lord, and admonish you." These sep- 
arate divisions of duty must be the province of the 
same officer, unless we suppose that an order has 
been instituted for the purpose of admonishing the 
Churches, as well as for ruling and teaching them. 
Compare Heb. 13: 7, 17, 24. (3.) The total 
absence of any directions with respect to the qualifi- 
cation of ruling elders, proves that no such officer 
is contemplated in the New Testament. If these are 
necessary to the completeness of Church organiza- 
tion, it is unaccountable, that while the other officers 
of the Church are plainly specified, and their quali- 
fications enumerated, no provision should be made 
for ruling elders. On these grounds, we contend 
that an order of men in the Church, whose sole 
business is to assist the pastor in its government, is 
not warranted by the precept or practice of the 
apostles. 

What, then, it may be asked, is the distinction to 

* Smyth, Office of Ruling Elder, p. 48. Pres. and PreL 
B. I. chap. 6. 



116 CHURCH POLITY. 

which the apostle refers ? The reply is obvious. It 
has been shown that a plurality of elders was cus- 
tomary in the apostolic Churches. Many of these, 
after the example of Paul, labored with their own 
hands for support ; and as they were stationary, 
might do so with little inconvenience. Others felt 
impelled by the Spirit, to make missionary excur- 
sions into the contiguous settlements, and devote 
themselves to the preaching of the Gospel. While 
the apostle urges upon the Churches the duty of 
supporting all their elders, he commends to their 
special regard those of them who had consecrated 
themselves to this laborious and self-denying work. 
The distinction is not one of officers, but of duties 
belonging to the same office.* 

An elder who devoted himself exclusively to the 
preaching of the Grospel in destitute regions, was 
termed an evangelist, a title which occurs only 
thrice in the New Testament. Acts 21 : 8 ; Eph. 
4 : 11 ; 2 Tim. : 4, 5. Although not located in 
any particular place, he belonged to the Presby- 
tery (or Bishops) of some particular Church, by 
whom he was sent forth to evangelize the nations, 
found Churches, and extend the kingdom of tiie 
Redeemer. As the religion of Jesus Christ is es- 
sentially aggressive, this class of ministers will be 

* Punchard, Congregat. p. 81. Upham, Ratio Discipl. 
J 38. Pictet, Theol. Christ. Lib. XII. c. 10 



CHURCH POLITY. 117 

needed until the world is converted to tlie faith, 
Modern missionaries have succeeded to the duties of 
the primitive evangelists. 

A careful examination of the Scriptures has thus 
led us to the conclusion, that Christ has provided for 
his Churches only two classes of officers ; bishops, 
or elders, and deacons. These officers are chosen 
by the people, and derive all their authority, under 
the Great Head of the Church, from the consent of 
the governed. Their position involves the most 
solemn responsibilities. It is their duty to provide 
for the welfare of the particular flock which has been 
committed to their charge ; watch over and feed it 
with the bread of life, and minister to its comfort 
and security while on its journey to the celestial 
fold. They are not to lord it over God's heritage. 
Any attempt on their part to restrict the privileges 
of believers, to invade their just rights, and deprive 
them of the liberty with which Christ has made 
them free, should be firmly and steadfastly resisted 
by all who are interested in preserving the institu- 
tions of the Gospel, as the only Lord and Master 
has delivered them. '' The ecclesiastical office," says 
Gros, '*is a service of the Church (ministerium), 
not a lordship (imperium), over its members."* 
A hierarchy claiming a divine right of jurisdiction 
over the servants of Christ, is as alien to the spirit 

* Lehrbuch des Naturrechts. { 281. 



118 CHURCH POLITY. 

of the Gospel, as it is hostile to their moral and 
spiritual interests. The growth of ambition, avarice, 
and corruption, its embrace is pollution and death. 



CHAPTEE X. 

IDENTITY OF BISHOPS AND ELDERS. 

In examining the arrangements wluch Christ has 
made for the external development of his kingdom, 
we have seen that he has instituted only two oJBBcers 
in a Christian Chnreh. In opposition to this, it 
has been maintained that bishops and elders (pres- 
byters or priests) are different officers, that deacons 
are preachers of the Gospel, and hence that the 
christian ministry is composed of three orders :. 
bishops, priests and deacons. This is the episco- 
pal scheme. The nature of the deacon's office is 
shown in its appropriate place. It is my object in 
this chapter to prove that the Scriptures make no 
official distinction between bishops and elders, that 
these are only different appellations for the same 
officers. The position is sustained, 

1. By the import of the terms, and their inter- 
change by the sacred writers. 

The term elder is of Jewish origin, and imports 
the wisdom and dignity of age, while the other 
term bishop, which was borrowed from Grecian 
usage, designates the object for which the office was 
instituted. *' This name," says Robinson, '* was, 



120 CHURCH POLITY. 

originally, simply the Greek term equivalent to 
elder^ which latter was derived from the Jewish 
polity." * That this statement is correct, is evi- 
dent from the usage of the sacred writers. 

One of the most unequivocal passages relating to 
this subject is found in Acts 20 : 17, compared 
with V. 28. The apostle Paul, in his interview 
with the elders of Ephesus, addresses them in the 
following words : — ^* Take heed to yourselves, and 
to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath 
made you overseers, (or bishops,) to feed the 
church of God which he hath purchased with his 
own blood." Here the appellations ai-e used in- 
terchangeably, the term bishop indicating the nature 
of the office to which elders are called. 

Another passage equally clear occurs in the first 
chapter of Paul's epistle to Titus. *^ For this 
cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in 
order the things that are wanting, [to the complete 
organization of the churches] and ordain elders in 
every city as I had appointed thee." Then in 
enumerating the qualifications of elders, he con- 
tinues, (as if to show that elders and bishops were 
the same officers,) ** For a bishop must be blame- 
less, as the steward of God." f 

* Lex. I^. T. p. 315 ; Neander, Apost. Church, B. 3, chap. 
5, p. 92. 

t In the postscrips to the epistles to Titus and Tim- 
othy, these evangelists are called bishops. But these 



CHURCH POLITY. 121 

This position is still further confirmed by 1 Pet 
5 : 1 — 4. " The elders which are among you, I 
exhort, who also am an elder . . . Feed the flock of 
God which is among you, taking the oversight 
thereof, i. e. acting the part of a bishop." 

The scriptural use of these terms is so clear that 
it has been conceded even by Episcopalians. " The 
name bishop, which now designates the highest 
grade of the ministry, is not appropriated to that 
office in Scripture. That name is given to the 
middle order, or Presbyters." * Every elder is, 
therefore, a bishop ; and " were it not," as Milton 
has said, "that the tyranny of prelates under the 
name of bishops had made our ears tender and 
startling, we might call every good minister a bish- 
op, as every bishop, yea the apostles themselves, are 
called ministers, and the angels, ministering spirits, 
and the ministers again angels, "f 

2. No intermediate officer is mentioned between 

postscripts are spurious, not having been annexed to the 
epistles until the fifth century. '' Certain it is that in the 
first three centuries, neither Timothy nor Titus is styled 
bishop by any writer." Campbell, Ecclesiastical History, 
Lecture 5, p. 79, where the absurdity of magnifying Titus 
into a metropolitan bishop is fully exposed. 

* Bishop Onderdonk, Episcopacy Tested by Scripture, 
p. 12. "Waddington, History Church, chap. 2, § 2. Bloom- 
field, N. T. note on Acts 20: 17. Maurice, Kingdom of 
Christ, p 370. 

t Reformation in England. Wks.. p. 19. 

11 



122 CHURCH POLITY. 

bishops and deacons. The apostle, in his instruc- 
tions to Timothy,! Tim. 3 : 1 — 7, after specifying the 
qualifications of a bishop, proceeds, immediately, to 
those of deacons. That this omission was not acci- 
dental, is evident from the fact that he afterwards 
alludes to the presbytery, 4 : 14. If these had 
constituted a separate grade in the ministry, he 
would certainly have given directions with respect 
to their qualifications. His omission to do so proves 
that, in his view, they were identical with bishops. 

3. The qualifications of bishops and elders are 
the same. 

In proof of this, it is merely necessary to consult 
1 Tim. 3 : 2—7 : Tit. 1 : 6—10. The matter was 
so understood as late as Jerome ; for in spealiing of 
these epistles, he remarks — ' ' In both epistles, 
whether bishops or presbyters are to be elected (for 
with the ancients, bishops and elders were the same, 
the one being descriptive of rank, the other of age) 
they are required each to be the husband of one 
wife."* 

4. Their rights and duties are the same. 

If the terms, bishop and elder, are applied indis- 
criminately to the same person, it follows, of course, 
that whatever is ascribed in the Scriptui'es to the 

* Ep. 83, ad Ocean, Coleman Primitive Church, p. 132. — 
Gieseler, Church History 1, § 29, note 1. Coleman. Christ- 
Antiq. p. 98. 



CHURCH POLITY. 123 

one, appertains also to the other. But there is here 
an independent source of proof. The sacred writers, 
in describing the rights and duties of bishops in 
some passages, and of elders in others, employ lan- 
guage which shows that these were not diferent offi- 
cers, but one and the same. Heb. 13 : 7, 17 ; 1 
Thess. 5 : 12 ; 1 Tim. 5 : 17 ; 1 Tim 4 : 14 ; 2 
Tim. 1 : 6, etc.* 

There is scarcely a subject on which the testimo- 
ny of antiquity is more uniform and explicit than the 
original equality of bishops and elders. A well 
known passage from Jerome has already been cited ; 
and many others might be referred to. It will be 
sufficient, however, to quote a few of them : 

" It were a grevious sin to reject those who have 
faithfully fulfilled the duties of their episcopal of- 
fice. Blessed are those preshyters (or elders) who 
have finished their course, &c." Clem. Epist. ad 
Cor. § 44. 

"- Elders who, with the succession cf the episco' 
pat, received the gift of truth." Irenaeus contr. 
haeres. lY., 26, § 2. 

*' There is no difference between a bishop and an 

* Coleman, Primitive Church, pp. 133 — 145. Barnes, 
Episc. Exam. pp. 130 — 133. The subject of this chapter 
is discussed, at large, by Dr. Smyth, in his Presbytery and 
Prelacy, B. I. Turretine, Theol. Elenc. Loc. XVIII. 
Qusest. 21. 



124 CHURCH POLITY. 

elder." Aetius. ap. Epiphan. haeres. LXXV., p. 
906. 

To the same effect might be cited the testimony 
of Justin SEartjr, Chrysostom, and others, but the 
limits of this work forbid it. The reader will find 
the passages in the works to which reference has 
been made aboYe. 

The best ecclesiastical historians and critics con- 
cur in the view which has been taken of the equality 
of bishops and elders. 

'' I can discover no other difference between the 
elders and bishops in the apostolic age, than that the 
first signifies the rank, the second the duties of the 
office, whether the reference is to one or more." 
Neander, Apost. Church, B. III. ch. 5, p. 92. 
Comp. Gieseler, I. § 29. 

*' The official designations, bishop and elder, had, 
in. primitive times, the same signification." HuU- 
mann, Kirchenverfassung, S. 17. 

" It is most manifest that both terms are promis- 
cuously used in the N. T. of one and the same class 
of persons." Mosheim, Church History, 1, p. 82. 

To this view the Reformers were led, with great 
unanimity, by the study of the Scriptures. Even 
in England, Wickliffe and a host of others contended 
for the original equality of bishops and elders.* Dr. 
John Reynolds, an Episcopal divine, who, according 

* Punchard, History Congregat. chap. 10, 



CHURCH POLITY. 125 

to Calamy, *' was universally reckoned the wonder 
of his age," asserted, in the year 1588, *' that they 
who, for these five hundred years, have been indus- 
trious in reforming the Church, have thought that all 
pastors, whether called bishops or presbyters, have, 
according to the word of God, like power and author- 
ity."* 

The perfect parity of all the ministers of the Gros- 
pel, derives strong confirmation from the spirit which 
our divine Master enjoined upon his disciples. On 
that memorable occasion, when the weakness of a 
mother's partiality menaced the fraternal union of 
the chosen band, by a request, which, springing from 
unhallowed ambition, sought to exalt the sons of 
Zebedee to a position above their brethren, he inter- 
posed his counsel and authority, and taught them 
that the path to real greatness and glory lay through 
humility and self-abasement. He refused to recog- 
nize any distinction among his followers, except that 
which arises from their personal devotion to him and 
his servants. ''Ye know that the princes of the 
Grentiles exercise dominion over them, and they 
that are great exercise authority over them. But it 
shall not be so among you : but whosoever will be 
great among you, let him be your minister ; and 

* Pun chard, p. 197. The sentiments of the Reformers 
are exhibited by Burnet, History Reformation ; and Neal 
Hist. Puritans. 

11* 



126 CHURCH POLITY. 

whosoever will be chief among you, let him be yoTir 
servant. Even as the son of man came, not to be 
ministered imto, but to minister, and to give his life 
a ransom for many." He thus rebuked all aspira- 
tions after rank and power among his followers, sum- 
moned them to laborious and self-denying service as 
the only criterion of greatness in his kingdom, and 
incited them to the pursuit of substantial honor and 
influence, by his own spotless example. 



CHAPTER XI. 

RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF BISHOPS. 

The episcopate is an office ; and involves, there- 
fore, the possession of certain rights, and an obliga- 
tion to perform specific duties. If this were not the 
case, the office would be superfluous, and the officer 
himself a shadow. As these rights and duties neces- 
sarily involve each other, it will be unnecessary to 
treat of them separately. An enumeration of the 
various functions which have been appropriated to 
the office of a bishop by inspired authority, will 
sufficiently indicate both his rights and his duties. 

1. It is appropriate to this officer of a Church, to 
administer the rite of baptism. This is evident 
from the commission of the Redeemer to the apos- 
tles, in which the same persons are empowered to 
preach and to baptize. Those who were *' added to 
the Church" on the day of Pentecost, were first bap- 
tized by the apostles. Philip baptized the eunuch 
upon his own authority, as a Christian minister ; and 
Paul refers to the ordinance, as administered by 
himself, in such a manner, as to show that he con- 
sidered that he alone was charged with the responsi- 
bility of the act. Every minister of the Grospel is 



128 CHURCH POLITY. 

authorized, by tlie divine commission, to baptize. 
Although, for the sake of convenience, the applicant 
for the rite is examined before the Church, that the 
members may, at the same time, judge of his qualifi- 
cations for Church membership, the authority to ad- 
minister it rests with those to whom the commission 
of the Saviour has been delivered. 

It is, therefore, the special duty of the minister to 
examine the applicant, carefully, with reference to 
all the points which are implied in a credible pro- 
fession of faith in the Son of Grod. As one who 
watches for souls, it is incumbent on him to deal 
faithfully with those who seek baptism at his hands, 
and receive none who do not afford satisfactory evi- 
dence that they have *' passed from death unto life." 
The temptation to relax the terms of admission to 
this sacred rite ; to be satisfied with slight or equiv- 
ocal evidence of a change of heart; and receive 
promiscuously all who apply, in order to augment 
the number of apparent converts and acquire the 
reputation of a highly successful preacher of the 
Word, is one to which no conscientious minister will 
ever yield. 

2. Another prerogative of the bishop is the right 
to rule. 

This officer of the Church is denominated an over- 
seer — a ruler — terms which imply the exercise of 
authority in its government. 1 Thess. 5 : 12, 13 ; 



CHURCH POLITY. 129 

Heb. 13: 7,17,24; Acts. 20 : 17,18,28; 1 
Tim. 5 : 17 ; 1 Pet. 5 : 1—3. This authority in- 
volves no legislative power or right ; it is ministerial 
and executive.* It is of much importance to under- 
stand the nature of the subjection which is enjoined 
by Christ to the pastor of a Church. From misap- 
prehension on this point, many offences have arisen 
in churches. A pastor, on the one hand, is per- 
suaded that he is to rule ; on the other hand, the 
people know that he is not to exercise lordship ; and 
mutual jealousies arise. He thinks he is only con- 
tending for the legitimate exercise of an authority 
committed to him for the good of the Church. 
They, on the contrary, conceive that in opposing 
him, they are only maintaining their just rights, and 
resisting clerical encroachments. He deprecates the 
confusion which may ensue from the want of pasto- 
ral authority ; they fear the evils which priestcraft 
has so often inflicted upon the servants of Christ. 

*' But when we turn to the inspired constitution 
of the Church, and ascertain that a pastor is to 
execute only the laws of Christ ; that his power is 
restricted within these wholesome and well-defined 
limits, — all just grounds of jealousy are removed ; 
he and his people are equally under obligation to 
the Redeemer. It is his duty to see that they obey, 
faithfully, the laws of his kingdom. He is to warn 

* Dr. Johnson, Gospel Developed, p. 78. 



130 CHURCH POLITY. 

and rebuke the disobedient, and, if they prove obsti- 
nate and perverse, to bring their cases before the 
Church, for its solemn adjudication. Should it be 
objected that this leaves the Churches without a 
government sufficiently effective for the preservation 
of peace and good order, the only answer that can 
be made, is that no other government is warranted 
by Scripture."* 

In virtue of his position, as ruler of the Church, 
the pastor possesses the right to preside at all its 
meetings. 

3. The pastor, or bishop, is entitled to a compe- 
tent temporal support. 

It is one of the most obvious principles of reason 
and justice, that the laborer is worthy of his hire. 
This principle is universally recognized, in reference 
both to religious and secular concerns, and has ob- 
tained among all nations ; for even idolaters and 
pagans support the ministers of their religion. It 
was enforced, by inspired authority, in the law of 
Moses. The tribe of Levi was set apart to the spe- 
cial service of the Most High, denied an inheritance 
in the land, and committed to their brethren for 
support, t 

* Haldane Soc. Worship, pp.242 — 248. See an excel- 
lent sermon by Andrew Fuller, in his "Works. II. p, 226. 
Boston: 1833. 

fNum. 18: 20. Deut. 10: 8. 14: 27. 18: 1. 



CHURCH POLITY. 131 

As the reason of this law is permanent in its 
character and equally applicable to all ages, the 
principle has remained unchanged, under the gospel 
dispensation. So the apostle argued, when he said 
to the Cormthians, "Do ye not know that they 
which minister about holy things [under the law] 
live of the things of the temple ? And they which 
wait at the altar are partakers with the altar ? Even 
so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach 
the Gospel should live of the Grospel." * 

The apostle here informs u& that the right of the 
pastor to just compensation for his services, rests 
upon a divine statute. Of the enactment of it, 
we have an account in Matt. 10 : 5 — 16. '' The 
workman is worthy of his meat." This statute, 
originally applicable to the apostles, was afterwards 
extended to the seventy disciples ; f and Paul af- 
firms that its obligation is perpetual, having refer- 
ence to all, in every age, who are called to preach 
the Grospel. This law, or ordinance of our Lord, is 
clearly recognized in the teaching and practice of 
the apostles. * ' Let him that is taught in the 
word, communicate to him that teacheth in all good 
things.'' t 

* 1 Cor. 9 : 13, 14. 

t Luke 10: 12. 

t Gal. 6 : 6. 1 Cor. 9 : 7—11. 16 : 17. Phil. 4 : 15—20. 
2 Cor. 11 : 8, 9. 1 Tim. 5 : 17, 18, where the word honor 
means reward, stipend, or wages. 



132 CHURCH POLITY. 

It is clear from these passages, that a minister of 
the Gospel has a divine warrant for claiming an ad- 
equate temporal support ; and to deny it, is to con- 
travene an express ordinance of Christ. It is equal- 
ly clear that he is entitled to nothing more than a 
support. He is to live of the Grospel, not to accumu- 
late property, and acquire an inheritance among his 
brethren. Having food and raiment, he ought 
therewith to be content, and not make his sacred 
calling subsidiary to his worldly interests. * 

The possession of this right, on the part of the 
preacher of the Grospel, involves the corresponding 
duty to give himself wholly to the ministry. He 
must preach, teach, and exhort ; visit the people of 
his charge, especially the sick ; be ready, at all 
times, to aid them by his counsel and advice ; detach 
himself, as far as practicable, from all temporal con- 
cerns, and devote his time and labor to the care of 
souls. 

It has been remarked, in a previous chapter of 
this work, that a plurality of elders was customary in 
the apostolic Churches. This, if not universal, was, 
at least, quite common. Some of these elders seem 
to have combined a secular occupation with their 
calling as Christian ministers. Others devoted 
themselves entirely to the work of the ministry. It 

* Howell, on the Deaconship, chap, V. Haldane, p. 226. 
Gospel Developed, p. 86. 



CHURCH POLITY. 133 

is probable that, at that early period, each Church 
needed several elders; whilst the poverty of its 
members generally, and the contributions which they 
were called upon to make to the relief of their per- 
secuted and suffering brethren, at home and abroad, 
rendered them unable to furnish an adequate support 
for these elders. Hence, some of them resorted to 
secular pursuits for maintenance ; and in thus adapt- 
ing themselves to the exigency of the case, they 
followed the example of .the apostles. The same 
course is lawful at the present day. The pastor of 
a feeble Church may properly derive his support, in 
part, from some secular avocation ; but he is, in no 
case, to resort to it for filthy lucre's sake. On the 
other hand, every Church, if able, is solemnly 
bound to sustain its pastor, so that he may give him- 
self *' continually to prayer and to the ministry of 
the word." 



12 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE DEACONSHIP. 



Our blessed Lord enumerated among the evi- 
dences of Ms divine mission, the interesting and 
instructive fact, that **the poor have the Gospel 
preached unto them." There is much in the prom- 
ises which it discloses, and the hopes which it in- 
spires, to claim the attention of those upon whom 
the blight of poverty has fallen. It is not surpris- 
ing, therefore, that a large proportion of the early 
converts to the Christian faith, were drawn from the 
humbler walks of life. In consequence of such an 
accession to the community of the disciples, a new 
sphere of labor was demanded ; since, in addition to 
the care of their souls, some consideration was due 
to their physical necessities. To have left them to 
endure the pressure of poverty, without any attempt, 
on the part of their brethren, to lessen its burden, 
would have been a reproach to the benevolent spirit 
of the new religion. Hence provision was made for 
their relief and support. 

Whilst the number of the disciples in Jerusalem 
was small, the apostles could perform all the duties 
which the care of the Churches imposed on them. 



CHURCH POLITY. 135 

But when, in consequence of the rapid progress of 
the Gospel, the Church was greatly enlarged, a di- 
vision of labor became necessary ; and they request- 
ed the brethren to select suitable persons to attend 
to the disbursement of their charities. The reason 
assigned by them for instituting this new office was, 
*' It is not reason that we should leave the word of 
God [the preaching of the Gospel] and serve ta- 
bles."* A separation was thus effected between 
the spiritual and the temporal affairs of the church ; 
and the supervision of the latter was entrusted to a 
body of officers denominated deacons. 

This term, which is now appropriated exclusively 
to a particular officer of the Church, means a minis- 
ter or servant ; and was, originally, applied to serv- 
ants of all classes, whether their department were 
temporal or spiritual. But as each of the other 
classes of servants was distinguished by some more 
specific appellation, the term deacon was afterwards 
employed to designate a particular officer of the 
Church, to whom the charge of its temporalities was 
committed. Hence it is the appropriate business of 
the deacons, to serve tables. The distribution of the 
bread and and wine at the Lord's Supper, in which 

* Acts 6 : 2. The brokers, or money-diangers, sat upon 
tables, in the market or other public places. Hence the 
import of the expression, serve tables^ is to take care of 
money affairs, to have charge of temporalities, alms, &c. 
Robinson, Lex. N. T., p. 830. Bloomfield, in loc. 



136 CHURCH POLITY. 

they are now employed, is a mere matter of custom 
or convenience, and forms no part of the original 
design of the office. 

The nature of the deaconship is thus defined, by 
the history of the origin of the office. The official 
duties of the deacons, are the opposite of those which 
are assigned to ministers ; and the very object con- 
templated in the institution of the order, was to re- 
lieve preachers of the Gospel from the management 
of secular interests, by placing them under the di- 
rection of others. If, therefore, the deacon is also 
a preacher, as some contend, the matter rests pre- 
cisely where it did before his appointment; and 
those who give themselves '' to prayer and to the 
ministry of the word," are employed in serving 
tables contrary to the *' reason" and practice of the 
apostles. It is, indeed, objected that Philip, ''one 
of the seven," did preach and baptize; but this 
does not affect the argumunt ; for as a deacon, he 
had no right to do either. The only legitimate 
inference from the facts of the case is, that he 
preached as a minister of the word, after he had 
ceased to be a deacon, and had been ordained an 
evangelist.* The two offices are incompatible. He 
could not have filled both at the same time." t 

As the deaconship was not designed to meet a 
temporary exigency, but is suited to a state of 

* Acts 21: 8. 

t Smyth. Presbytery and Prelacy. B. I. chap. XI. 



CHURCH POLITY. 137 

affairs which must subsist as long as there is a 
Church upon the earth, it is a permanent institu- 
tion. The reason of the office remaining unchang- 
ed, the office itself must be equally immutable. 
Every Church must have a place of worship, a pas- 
tor to be supported, and poor members who need 
assistance. It is the duty of every Church to con- 
tribute to the spread of the gospel, at home and 
abroad. For all these purposes, money is needed ; 
and it is the duty of the deacons to collect and 
disburse it. In many churches, the deacons neglect 
altogether the appropriate duties of their station, 
and satisfy their consciences with the discharge of 
an extra-official matter with which they have no 
special concern ; the distribution of the elements 
at the Lord's Supper — as if the solemn ordination 
of men of rare qualifications, by the imposition of 
hands, contemplated no higher object than the hand- 
ing round of bread and wine ; a service which any 
member of the Church is competent to perform. 
This lamentable defection from the order established 
by the apostles has rendered the office of deacon, in 
many of our Churches, a mere nullity, if not a 
grievous incumbrance. 

In the primitive Churches, the peculiarities of 
Eastern manners and customs * rendered necessary 

* So also among the Greeks, according to the testimony 
of Cornelius Nepos, in the Preface to his Lives, 

12* 



138 CHURCH POLITY. 

the employment of females in services similar to 
those of the deacons. These were styled deacon- 
esses. They were aged women, usually widows. 
To these females reference is made in 1 Tim. 5 : 9, 
10. ** Let not a widow be taken into the number 
(that is of deaconesses) under three score years old," 
&c. Their qualifications are specified by the apos- 
tle in connection with those of deacons. 1. Tim. 
3 : 11, " Even so must their wives be grave," &c. 
The Greek term which our translators have rendered 
'' wives, ''^ is supposed by the best interpreters to 
refer to deaconesses, and should have been rendered 
*' the females." * The expression cannot refer to 
the wives of deacons or of ministers, because they 
do not stand in any official relation to the Church. t 
In occidental countries where no such restriction 
is imposed upon the intercourse of the sexes, this 
class of servants is unnecessary. Hence it has fal- 
len into desuetude. " Morinus offers several reasons 
for the abrogating of this office in Syria, which were 
briefly, that the services of the women became 
less important after the cessation of the agapae of 
the primitive Church, — - that the care of the sick 
and the poor, which had devolved upon the Church 

* Macknight and Bloomfield in loc. 

t The existence of such a class is illustrated by Pliny, ii^ 
his letter to Trajan, who calls them ministrae Ep. Lib. 
X. p. 96. Comp. Romans 16 : 1 ; Timothy 5:3; Ti^us 2 : 
2; Phil. 4: 3. 



CHURCH POLITY. 139 

was in the time of Constantine assumed by tlie State, 
— that after the introduction of infant baptism, 
their attendance at this ordinance became of less im- 
portance — and finally, that they, in their turn, be- 
came troublesome aspirants after the prerogatives of 
office ; in a word, the order was abolished because 
it was no longer neccessary."* These helps were 
needed only for a time. The circumstances which 
required them have passed away ; and as they sus- 
tained no official relation to the Church and were 
not embraced in its regular and permanent organ- 
ization, no such class exists at the present day.f 

* Coleman Christ. Antiq. p. 118. Punchard p. 85. Ne- 
ander Ch. Hist. p. 108. Apos. Ch. B. 3, chap. 5, p. 97- 
Haldane, p. 227 — 235. 

f On the subject of this chapter see King, Prim. Church, 
chap. 5, § 1. Httlmann, Kirchenverfassung, S. 15. Bacon 
Manual, p. 40. Punchard, pp. 92, 10. And for a thorough 
discussion of the whole subject, Howell, On the Deacon- 
ship. Phila, A. B. P. S. 1848. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ORDINATION. 

It is the practice of all societies, ecclesiastical as 
well as civil, to induct persons into office by a solemn 
and formal inauguration. In reference to the offi- 
cers of a Church, this ceremony is called ordination ; 
although the word properly implies the whole of the 
transaction by which an individual is authorized to 
discharge official duties. To render it complete, 
two things are necessary, the choice of the Church, 
and the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery, 
with prayer and fasting. It has already been proved 
that a Church possesses the right to elect its own 
officers ; and from this principle it has been inferred 
by some, that election is equivalent to ordination, 
and comprehends all that is included in that cere- 
mony. The act of the Presbytery is therefore su- 
perfluous. If this were the case, and ordination were 
complete without the intervention of the Presbytery, 
there would have been no propriety in affirming, as 
the Scriptures do, that Paul and Barnabus '' or- 
dained elders in every church," &c.* In the efforts 
which have been made to sustain this position, great 

* Acts 14 : 23 ; cf Tit. 1:5. 



CHURCH POLITY. 141 

stress has been laid npon the term ordain, which signi- 
fies simply to appoint ; * but from the mere use of 
the term, nothing definite can be inferred, since it 
may relate to one kind of appointment as well as 
another. What we are inquiring after is the thing 
— the entire transaction which is included in the 
ceremony to which the term ordination is applied. 
This embraces the act of the Presbytery, as well as 
the act of the Church. Upon no other supposition 
can the different accounts which are given of the 
ceremony in the New Testament, be harmonized. 
In some cases the Church is said to ordain, or ap- 
point, its officers ; in others, the xipostles are repre- 
sented as doing the same thing. All this is in 
accordance with an obvious figure of speech, by 
which a part is put for the whole ; the initiatory or 
the consummating act, in this case, being employed to 
designate the entire transaction. The same rhetori- 
cal figure is used by the sacred writers on other sub- 
jects. Thus, the Lord's Supper is called break- 
ing of bread ; f we are said to be justified by the 
blood of Christ, by his righteousness, by faith, by 
grace. The use of one of these terms does not ex- 
clude the others ; in each case a part is put for the 
whole. On a subject of such importance as this, I 
am happy to avail myself of the concurrence of Dr. 

* Gospel Developed, ch. xii — xv. 
t A.cts 2 : 42 ; 20 : 7- 



142 CTIURCTl POLITV. 

Howell, in the following observations, which are 
equally philosophical and scriptural. " In the gov- 
ernment of states, whatever its form, checks and 
balances between the several departments are, by 
experience, found to be necessary to secure the in- 
terests of the parties concerned. They have, ac- 
cordingly, been adopted by all civilized nations. In 
the Church of Christ they are instituted by divine 
authority. We have now before us a striking ex- 
ample. The ministry have no rigbt to ordain any 
man to the Deaconship, not previously elected by 
the Churcb to that office. The consent of the 
Church is positively necessary, otherwise he would 
be a deacon " at large," having no place in which 
to exercise his functions. On the other hand, though 
brethren may be elected by the Church, they are 
still, unless ordained by the ministry, not deacons. 
There must be a concurrence between the Church 
and the ministry to create the officer. True, they 
do commonly concur, but not always, nor is it by any 
means a matter of course. Similar checks and bal- 
ances exist with regard to the ordination of pastors 
and evangelists, and the baptism of candidates for 
membership in the Church. [That is, the minister 
may baptize, but the Church is not on that account 
bound to receive the candidate to membership.] 
Thus a double guard is thrown around all the most 



CHURCH POLITY. 143 

important interests of the kingdom of the Mes- 
siah."* 

The imposition of hands is a very ancient custom, 
and was practised for various purposes. It was 
symbolical of benediction, consecration, healing, and 
the gift of .the Holy Spirit. Its import, when em- 
ployed in ordination, may best be learned from the 
case of the Levites, noticed in Num. 8 : 10. It is 
well known that the tribe of Levi was consecrated 
to '*the service of the Lord," in the place of the 
first born of all the children of Israel. To indicate 
this consecration, the following ceremony was com- 
manded, *' Thou shalt bring the Levites before the 
Lord, and the children of Israel shall put their hands 
upon the Levites. And Aaron shall offer the Le- 
vites before the Lord for an offering of the children 
of Israel, that they may execute the service of the 
Lord." A similar practice was observed when any 
thing was dedicated or consecrated to the Lord. 
There is nothhig mysterious or magical in this cere- 
mony. The children of Israel put their hands upon 
the Levites, to indicate by this symbolical act, that 
they gave them to the Lord. Such is its import in 
ordination. The laying on of the hands of the 
Presbytery, in the case of a person who has been 
chosen to office by the suffrages of the Church, 

* The Deaconship, p. 65 ; King. Prim, ch . p. 1, ch. 3-4 ; 
Crowell, Church Member's Manual, p. 106. Boston, 1847 . 



144 CHURCH POLITY. 

means nothing more than that his brethren have set 
him apart to a specific service. It is a public and 
authentic declaration of the fact. As such, it was 
observed by the primitive Churches. When the 
deacons were appointed, the Apostles prayed and laid 
hands on them, thus ordaining or appointing them 
to the office.* If employed in the ordination of 
deacons, it certainly must have been in that of elders ; 
and the Scriptures furnish sufficiently clear indica- 
tions that this was the case. 1 Tim. 4:14; 5 : 22. 
As the Apostle in the latter passage is speaking of 
elders, it is plain that he alludes to their appoint- 
ment. 

*' It is evident," says Haldane, '* that laying on 
of hands was used in separating men to the ministry 
in the primitive Apostolic Churches. It was not 
confined to occasions on which the Holy Ghost was 
conferred. It was used in ordaining elders and dea- 
cons who required only the ordinary gifts. There 
is nothing in the word of God setting aside this 
usage. It ought, therefore, to be observed where 
this can be done, according to the example given us 

in Scripture. ''t 

The abettors of prelacy, dividing the ministry 
into three grades, restrict the power of ordination to 
the highest — ^the episcopal. But the Scriptures, as 

* Acts 6 : 6. 

t Social Worship, ch. viii. p. 254 ; Smith, Presbytery and 
Prelacy, B. 1, ch. vii. § 2 ; Coleman, Prim. ch. p. 140. 



CHURCH POLITY. 145 

I have before proved, furnish no authority for such 
grades. With them, bishop and elder, or presbyter, 
are only different designations of the same officer ; 
and therefore no provision is made for the possession 
of this power by one class of ministers, to the exclu- 
sion of the- rest. As to the notion that some mys- 
terious virtue — some magic fluid — is transmitted in 
ordination, that the Holy Ghost is conferred upon 
the subject of it, to be conveyed by him to his fellow- 
men by means of the sacraments, it is utterly un- 
scriptural and absurd ; and can subserve no other 
purpose except the exaltation of the priesthood, and 
the tyranny of ecclesiastical domination.* 

* Smyth, Presb. and Prel. B. I. ch. vii.-x. ; Apostol. Suc- 
cession, Lee. XX. note A; Coleman, Prim. ch. pp. 176-198 ; 
Dr. Woods, Objections to Episcopacy, Lee. IV. ; King, 
Prim. Ch. P. I, chap. 3 ; Fuller's Works, II. p. 660. 



13 



CHAPTER XIV 



BAPTISM. 



Christianity is preeminently a spiritual religion. 
Its germination and growth in the heart are depend- 
ent upon the influence of the Holy Ghost. The 
external means of grace possess no intrinsic efficacy, 
but derive their tendency to confirm and strengthen 
the saints solely from the appointment of God. 
None of them are invested with the agency of an 
opus operatum, a power to convey grace by their 
inherent efficiency. This is particularly true of the 
Christian ordinances. They sustain no direct rela- 
tion to the salvation of the soul ; since the great 
transformation of character which is necessary to 
qualify for the bliss of heaven, must have been 
experienced before an individual is prepared to 
receive them. They are not saving ordinances; 
they can be approached by those only who are 
among the number of ** such as shall be saved." 

The New Testament contains traces of only two 
Christian ordinances. These are Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. Of the two, the latter alone is 
strictly a Church ordinance. A Church is composed 
of baptized believers. Baptism is indispensable to 



CHURCH POLITY. 147 

their admission into it, but it does not make tliem 
Church members. The ordinance itself will now 
claim our attention. 

In the prosecution of this inquiry, it will be nec- 
essary to determine what is baptism, and who are 
the subjects of the ordinance. 

I. To a devout mind, it cannot be a matter of 
trivial interest, that the ordinances of the gospel not 
only derive their validity from the appointment of 
the great Head of the Church, but are hallowed 
and commended to our imitation by his own exam- 
ple. It would seem, therefore, that the sole object 
of a conscientious inquirer, would be to ascertain what 
was the form of the ordinance which was sanctioned 
by Christ himself. This having been determined, 
no other inquiries need supervene. The path of 
duty is plain. Having clearly discerned the foot- 
prints of his divine Exemplar, the Christian should 
wait for no additional incentives to *' follow his 
steps." That Christ was baptized only in one way, 
is an obvious inference from the fact that he was 
baptized only once. This way it is important to as- 
certain. A serious and careful examination of the 
subject is demanded by the highest considerations ; 
and the temper of indifference which passes it over, 
as a matter of little moment, can claim no fellow- 
ship with the spirit of Him who has taught us by his 
own example, to '• fulfil all righteousness." 



148 CHURCH POLITY. 

There is another aspect of this subject which 
claims our most profound consideration. Baptism 
is a positive institution. ** Moral precepts, '^ says 
Bishop Butler,* *' are precepts, the reason of which 
we see ; positive precepts, are precepts, the reason 
of which we do not see. Moral duties arise out of 
the nature of the case itself, prior to external com- 
mand ; positive duties do not arise out of the nature 
of the case, but from external command ; nor would 
they be duties at all, were it not for such command, 
received from Him whose creatures and subjects we 
are.'' The obligation to obedience, in either case, is 
the same ; but the grounds upon which it rests are 
different. It is, moreover, the peculiarity of a moral 
precept, that it may be obeyed, when only the spirit 
of it is complied with. But in reference to a posi- 
tive precept, no such distinction exits. Positive 
institutions derive their validity solely from the au- 
thority of the law-giver. They are obligatory, be- 
cause he has made them so ; and they are valid only 
in the form in which he has thought fit to appoint 
them. To mutilate or abridge them, is not simply 
to modify, but to subvert them. 

If, therefore, the ordinance of baptism is a posi- 
tive institution, resting upon the supreme will of the 
Head of the Church, and that will is expressed in 
positive commands, the obligation to a strict compli- 

* Analogy, P. II. Chap. 1. 



CHURCH POLITY. 149 

ance with them cannot be denied. To alter the 
ordinance, or substitute any thing else in its place, 
is not to obey the command of Christ ; and such a 
procedure involves either a reflection upon his wis- 
dom, or a contempt of his authority. It is univer- 
sally conceded, that the use of water is essential to 
Christian baptism. Immersion in any other liquid, 
although impregnated with the costliest perfumes, 
and rolling, like the fabled Pactolus, over a bed of 
gold, would not be Christian baptism. But in a 
positive ordinance, such as this, we have as little 
right to change one part as another, to determine 
the quantity as the quality of the liquid to be em- 
ployed in its administration. It is manifest, there- 
fore, that there cannot be several modes of baptism. 
Baptism is itself a mode ; the word defines the or- 
dinance ; and in making a profession of religion, 
the use of water in any other mode than immersion, 
is a counterfeit of man's devising, and not a Chris- 
tian institution.* 

That immersion alone is baptism, is proved, 
1. By the primary and ordinary meaning of the 
term. The founder of a system of religion, in com- 
municating it to mankind, would doubtless select a 
medium of communication sufficiently clear and ex- 
plicit to convey his meaning to those for whom that 

*Westlake, Gen. View of Bap. chap. 1. Booth, Pedo- 
bap. Exam. P. 1, chap. 1. Carson on Bap. Preface;- - 
13* 



150 CHURCH POLITY. 

system was designed ; and as the Greek language is 
the chosen medium for the commuication of the 
Christian revelation, it is proper to inquire whether, 
upon the supposition that immersion is baptism, 
this language contains a word that conveys distinct- 
ly and clearly that meaning. The copiousness of 
the Greek tongue, and its wonderful adaptation to 
the expression of the minutest shades of thought, 
have often excited the admiration of the scholar. 
It would, therefore, be exceedingly strange if it 
lacked a term for the expression of so simple an idea 
as immersion. This, however, is not the fact. 

There is a Greek verb, the primary and usual im- 
port of which, is to dip or immerse ; and the cor- 
responding noun signifies immersion. Of this fact 
we have evidence the most abundant and conclusive. 
I proceed to adduce some portion of it, confining 
myself to those who are not baptists in practice. 

Robinson Lex. N. T. Baptizo, to immerse, to 
sink. 

Donnegan Greek Lex. Baptizo, to immerse, 
submerge. 

To the same effect is the testimony of Leigh, 
Schoettgen, Parkhurst, Stephanus, Pasor, Scapula, 
Hedericus, Wall, Bretschneider, and other Greek 
lexicographers. 

Booth and other writers have collected together 
a cloud of witnesses pn this point. I shall cite only 



CHURCH POLITY. 151 

a few of them, adding some others which I have 
met with in my own reading. 

Witsius. It cannot be denied that the native 
signification of the word haptizo, is to plunge or dip. 
(Econ. Foed. IV. : 16, 13. 

Salmasius. Baptism is immersion, and was ad- 
ministered, in ancient times, according to the force 
and meaning of the word. Now it is only rhantism, 
or sprinkling ; not immersion, or dipping. 

Prof. Stuart. Bapto and haptizo, mean to dip, 
plunge, or immerge, into any thing liquid. All lex- 
icographers and critics of any note agree in this. 
BibLRepos. 3; p. 298. 

Gomar. Baptismos and bapttsma, signify the 
act of baptizing ; that is, either plunging alone, or 
immersion and the consequent washing. 

Buddeus. The words haptizo and haptismos, 
are not to be interpreted of aspersion, but always of 
immersion. 

Vitringa. The act of baptising, is the immer- 
sion of believers in water. This expresses the force 
of the word, 

Hospinian. Christ commanded us to be bap- 
tized ; by which word it is certain immersion is sig- 
nified. 

Casaubon. This was the rite of baptizing, that 
persons were plunged into the water, which the very 
word baptize signifies. 



152 CHURCH POLITY. 

Bossuet. To baptize, signifies to plunge, as is 
granted by all the world. 

Turrettine. Baptizo, to baptize ; to dip into, to 
immerse.* 

Bland. The metaphor of baptism, or immersion 
in water, or being put under floods, is familiar in 
Scripture, to signify a person overwhelmed with 
calamities. Annot. on Matt. I. ; p. 43. Cambridge. 
1828. 

Elsley. Immersion in waters, or under floods ; 
called here (Matt. 20 : 22) baptism. Annot. p. 
193. Oxford. 1844. 

It is thus apparent, that the primary and ordinary 
meaning of haptizo, is to immerse. This being the 
case, the burden of proof is shifted upon those who 
affirm that it means something else ; since it is an 
acknowledged principle of interpretation, as laid 
down by Ernesti, that *' the literal meaning is not 
to be deserted without reason or necessity . " This 
necessity must be plain and imperative ; and even 
if cases could be cited in which the word, in its sec- 
ondary meaning, is susceptible of a different inter- 
pretation, this fact would not invalidate the evidence 
which sustains its primary and usual import. This 
remark is peculiarly applicable to those cases in 
which the word is employed in a figurative sense. 

* Booth Pedobap. Exam. P. I., chap. 2. Hinton Hist. 
Bafp. page 55. 



CHURCH POLITY. 153 

The figure is to be explained by the meaning of the 
word, and not the meaning of the word by the fig- 
ure.* 

But the advocates of immersion take a higher 
position than is implied in the suppositions which 
have just been made. Dr. Carson has proved by an 
array of facts and a conclusiveness of argument, not 
to be resisted, that *' haptizo not only signifies to 
dip or immerse, but that it never has any other 
meaning." t lathis position he is sustained by Prof. 
Stuart. J 

2. Circumstances attending Baptism. 

A consideration of the circumstances attending the 
administration of this ordinance, confirms the opin- 
ion which has been expressed with respect to the 
import of haptizo. They are such as comport 
most naturally and fully with the idea of immersion. 
No necessity exists for departing from the original 
and proper meaning of the word. Let us consider 
some of them. 

Matt. 3 : 16. Jesus, when he was baptized, went 
up straightway out of the water. The most obvious 
import of the phrase here employed is, that Jesus 
came up out of the water into which he had descend- 
ed for the purpose of being baptized. 

* This common sense principle of interpretation, is recog- 
nized by Daehne Paulin. Lehrbegr. S. 93. 
t On Baptism ; pp. 13, 79. N. Y. 1832. 
JBibl. Repos. 3; pp. 292, 293. 



154 CHURCH POLITY. 

John 3 : 23. John was baptizing in Enon, near 
to Salim, because there was much water there : and 
they came and were baptized. 

That the phrase ''much water," is equivalent to 
an abundance, or large body of water, and not to 
many rivulets, is evident from the usage of John, in 
other portions of his writings. Examine Rev. 1 : 
15 ; 14 : 2 ; 19 : 6. It is obvious, that in these 
passages the sacred writer had reference to an abun- 
dant mass of water. Compare Rev. 17 : 1, 15. 
On this point, a learned Episcopalian remarks, 
*' That the baptism of John was by plunging the 
body, seems to appear from what is related of him ; 
namely, that he baptized in Jordan : that he bap- 
tized in Enon, because there was much water there ; 
and that Christ being baptized came up out of the 
water ; to which that seems to be parallel. Acts 
8 : 38. Philip and the eunuch went down, &c."* 

The case of the Ethiopian eunuch is equally de- 
cisive, in reference to the external act of baptism. 
Acts 8 : 36—39. '' They went down both into the 
water, both Philip and the eunuch." For what 
purpose Philip went down into the water, unless to 
immerse the eunuch, it does not appear. The obvi- 
ous and natural interpretation of the entire transac- 
tion coincides with the idea of immersion. 

I might proceed to the examination of all the 

* Bland, Annot. on Matt. I. p. 74. 



CHURCH POIilTY. 155 

cases ill the New Testament, in which the circum- 
stances attending the rite are detailed. But it is 
not necessary. If haptizo means to immerse, and 
is never used in any other sense, an actual immersion 
must have taken place in all the cases in reference 
to which it is used. I have cited the instances 
above, merely to show that the circumstances con- 
nected with the rite, harmonize most naturally and 
clearly with the meaning which is invariably ascribed 
to the word by the highest authorities in Greek phil- 
ology and criticism. For a more extensive discussion 
of the subject, the reader is referred to the works 
mentioned in the margin.* 

3. By the meaning of the ordinance. 

Baptism is symbolical. It is expressive of certain 
great facts or truths which are essential to the Chris- 
tian system ; and so beautifully and appropriately 
does it represent the sublime central fact of our 
religion, the resurrection of the Redeemer, and its 
cardinal doctrine, the spiritual renovation of man, 
that even in the absence of any inspired teaching on 
the subject, the mind would naturally associate it 
with these fundamental truths. But the Scriptures 
have not left us to conjecture on this point. They 
furnish plain and explicit intimations that such is 
the design of this significant hieroglyphic of the 

♦ Ripley, Exam, of Stuart, pp. 62 — 15. Carson, Jewett. 
Hinton, and Hague. 



156 CHURCH POLITT. 

Christian economy. They teach ns that baptism is 
an emblem of the resurrection of Christ, involving, 
of course, its immediate antecedents, his death and 
burial ; and of that moral death and resurrection, 
which defines the character of his true followers. 
This is clearly the import of Rom. 6:4; Col. 2 : 
12; IPet. 3: 21. 

A few modern interpreters, among whom are 
Hodge and Stuart, deny that there is any allusion 
to the external act of baptism in Rom. 6:4; but 
in this they are at variance with the great body of 
commentators, as well as with the manifest import 
of the passage itself. 

Macknight. He [Christ] submitted to be baptized, 
that is, to be buried under the water by John, and 
to be raised out of it again, as an emblem of his 
future death and resurrrection. In like manner, 
the baptism of believers is emblematical of their 
death, burial, and resurrection. 

Bloomfield. There is a plain allusion to the an- 
cient custom of baptism by immersion. 

Leighton. Where the dipping into the water is 
referred to, as representing our dying with Christ ; 
and the return thence, as expressive of our rising 
with him. Comm. on 1 Pet. 3 : 21. 

Hammond. It is a thing that every Christian 
knows, that the immersion in baptism refers to the 
death of Christ, The putting of the person into the 



CHURCH POLITY. 157 

water, denotes and proclaims the death and burial 
of Christ. 

Hoadley. If baptism had been then performed 
as it is now amongst us, [the Church of England] 
we should never have so much as heard of- this form 
of expression, of dying and rising again in this rite.* 

The practice of immersion is commended to the 
disciples of Christ, by the symbolical exhibition 
which it makes of his own sublime and consummat- 
ing act of grace. With inarticulate, yet expressive 
and touching power, it speaks of Him ** who was 
delivered for our offences, and was raised again for 
our justification." It is sad to reflect that Christian 
hands have mutilated and disfigured this beautiful 
ordinance, and deprived it of its emblematic import ; 
so that in our efforts to reinstate it in its original 
honor, and restore it to its primitive form, we have 
to contend, not with the enemies, but the friends of 
our common Lord. I would ask every pious, unim- 
mersed reader who may peruse these pages, to pause, 
and ask himself, whether he is not lending his influ- 
ence to overthrow one of the most significant monu- 
ments of the Saviour's resurrection. If immersion 
be emblematic of a truth so dear to the believer ; if 
it so truthfully represents his own ' ' washing of re- 
generation and renewing of the Holy Grhost," shed 

* Works III. 890. Hague, Bap. Ques. 107. Crowell, 
Church Member's Manual, 152. 

14 



158 CHURCH POLITY. 

on him '* abundantly by Jesus Christ, our Saviour ; " 
and if, moreover, as Dr. Wall concedes, ** it was, in 
all probability, the way by which our blessed Saviour, 
and for certain was the most usual and ordinary way 
by which the ancient Christians did receive their 
baptism," what should prevent all the friends of 
Christ from uniting their suffi*ages in its behalf, and 
combining to uphold and perpetuate this noble insti- 
tution of our common Christianity? It affords 
matter of devout gratitude to God, that recent 
events present cheering indications of a return to 
scriptural baptism. The affusion of adults has be- 
come an exceedingly rare occurrence ; they almost 
invariably demand immersion ; and if infant baptism 
— which, by forestalling inquiry, perpetuates error — 
were abolished, this emblematic rite of the New Tes- 
tament would stand forth in its primitive symmetry 
and beauty.* 

4. Practice of the Primitive Churches. 

The earliest uninspired records of ecclesiastical his- 
tory, labor under the disadvantage of being justly sus- 
pected to be, to some extent, spurious, corrupt, and in- 
terpolated. Their evidence, therefore, is to be receiv- 
ed with caution. It is clear to all who have examined 
the writings of the apostolic fathers, in connection 
with the productions of the evangelists and apostles, 

* Booth, Fed. Exam. Part I. ch. 3, ch. 6. Westlake, ch. 
3,4. 



CHURCH POLITf. 159 

tbat their views of Christian truth are entitled to 
very little consideration. But the allusions which 
their writings contain to the ordinance of baptism, 
where the genuineness of the passages themselves is 
admitted, may be safely credited ; for as baptism is 
an external act, appealing to the senses, the testi- 
mony of an honest and unsuspected spectator of the 
ordiaance, is all that we require or have a right to 
demand. It is on this principle, that we unhesitat- 
ingly reject the notions of the fathers, with reference 
to the efficacy of baptism ; while we yield our un- 
suspecting assent to their testimony, with respect to 
the external act. The following passages disclose to 
us the practice of the early Churches : 

Barnabas. Ep. ch. 11. We descend into the 
water, and come out of it. 

Hermas. Pastor, 3. Men descend into the 
water, but ascend out of it.* Vid. also, Herm. Simil. 
IX. 16. Iren. III. 17, 2. 

The testimony of later writers is equally explicit, 
and is moreover free from all suspicion. 

Justin Martyr, (tl64) towards the conclusion of 
his, so-called, Second Apology, thus alludes to the 
administration of the ordinance : " Those who be- 
lieve and are persuaded that the things we teach and 
inculcate are true, and who profess ability thus to 
live, are directed to pray, with fasting, and to ask of 

* August! Denker, VII. 77, remarks : " This passage 
contains distinct evidence of the custom of immersion." 



160 CHURCH POLITY. 

God tlie forgiveness of their former sins, we also 
fasting and praying with thera. Then we conduct 
to a place where there is water ; and they are regen- 
erated [baptized] in the manner in which we have 
been regenerated [baptized;] for they receive a 
washing with water, in the name of the Father.'' 
&c.* 

Tertullian (t220.) We are immersed in water. 
Adv. Prax. 26. De cor. mil. 3. 

Cone. Tolet. V., (A.D. 633.) The immersion 
in water is, as it were, the descent to Hades, and 
the emersion from the water, the resurrection. 

It is thus clear that the practice of immersion con- 
tinued in the Churches, from the age of Justin Mar- 
tyr down to that of the Council of Toledo. It would 
be easy to cite other intervening witnesses, such as 
Clement of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Basil, 
Gregory Nyssen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophy- 
lact, Ambrose, &c. ; but the above are sufficient to 
establish the general custom. During this period, 
immersion was the universal practice, except in cases 
of dangerous sickness. In such circumstances, 
pouring or sprinkling was tolerated by some of the 

* I have given tlie translation of Dr. Murdock, in his edi- 
tion of Mosheim, I. 167. Prof Emerson, of Andover, more 
correctly renders the last clause '* for they then perform the 
ablution in the water." Christian E,ev. VI. 305. The original 
may be seen in Miinscher, Dogmengesch. (Von Coin) I. 
§99. 



CHURCH POLITY. 161 

Churches ; but neither of these was ever supported 
on the ground of tradition or apostolic practice. 
Cyprian, the great advocate and apologist of affusion, 
as the substitute of baptism, never pretended to 
place it upon the only ground upon which it could 
securely rest — primitive practice — but attempted 
to justify it by the '' pressing necessity " of the case. 
In his judgment, baptism was necessary to salvation, 
and hence, he concluded that '' God's indulgence " 
would permit an abridgment of the ordinance, in 
the cases of those whom sickness prevented from 
submitting to it in the usual form.* 

This position is maintained by the most learned 
and impartial historians. Eusebius informs us that 
when Novatian received baptism, by pouring, he was 
" attacked by an obstinate disease, and supposed to 
be at the point of death ; " y and that his ordination 
*' was opposed by all the clergy, and many of the 
laity, as unlawful, because of his clinic perfusion." 
Gieseler, Ch. Hist. I. § 68. It was often neces- 
sary to baptize the sick, and in that case sprinkling 
was substituted for the usual rite. 

* Cyp. Epis. 76 (69) ad Magnum. 

t Eccl. Hist. VI. 43. Valesius, in his note on this pas- 
sage, says : '* As baptism properly signifies immersion, j»er- 
fusion could scarcely be called baptism." I take this note of 
Valesius from Dr. Sears (Christian Rev. III. 106), although 
admonished by his inaccurate citation of Eusebius, of the 
hazard of quoting at second hand. Hinton, Hist. Bap. p. 166. 

14* 



162 CHURCH POLITY. 

Munscher. (Von Coin) I. § 199. Only with 
the sick was baptism administered by aspersion ; and 
it was deemed necessary to salvation, unless its place 
was supplied by the baptism of blood, i. e. martyr- 
dom. 

Fleury. Moeurs des Chretiens, § 5, p. 192. Bap- 
tism was usually performed by immersion ; yet as- 
persion was deemed sufficient in cases of necessity, 
as for the sick. 

King. Prim. Ch. P. II, ch. 4, §§ 5, 6. Their 
usual custom was to immerse or dip the whole body. 
Perfusion, or sprinkling, was not accounted unlaw- 
ful ; but, in cases of necessity, that was used, as in 
clinic baptism. 

To the same effect is the testimony of many other 
writers, who nevertheless practise sprinkling, Sal- 
masius, Pamelius, Grotius, Rheinwald, Neander, 
Stroth, Du Fresne, Burnet, Towerson, Wall. It is 
worthy of remark that the same principle is now 
recognized in the Church of England, although the 
practice is very different, the Rubric requiring that 
the '' priest dip the child, unless it be certified that 
it be weakly." 

The primitive practice of immersion is so clearly 
sustained by ecclesiastical history, that it is conceded 
by every candid inquirer. The few among those 
who are not Baptists, who sometimes venture to deny 
it, are soon overwhelmed by the multitude of wit- 



CHURCH POLITY. 163 

nesses, that appear in their own ranks. Some of 
these will now be brought forward. 

Dr. Wall. Their [the primitive Christians] gen- 
eral and ordinary way was to baptize by immersion, 
or dipping the person, whether it were an infant, or 
grown man or woman, into the water. This is so 
plain and clear by an infinite number of passages, 
that as one cannot but pity the weak endeavors of such 
pedobaptists as would maintain the negative of it ; 
so also we ought to disown and show a dislike of the 
profane scoffs which some people give to the English 
anti-pedobaptists, merely for their use of dipping. 
It was, in all probability, the way by which our 
blessed Saviour, and for certain was the most usual 
and ordinary way by which the ancient Christians 
did receive their baptism.* 

John Wesley. Mary Wesh, aged eleven days, 
was baptized according to the custom of the first 

* Hist. Inf. Bap. II. ch. 2, p. 462. We may contrast with 
these sensible remarks, the rejinemefiit of some recent 
American writers. "It [immersion] is indelicate. It vio- 
lates a natural and healthful sense of propriety for females 
to expose themselves in water, with and before the other 
sex. Though modesty forbids the statement of this objec- 
tion in all its force, it is enough to say that the sacrifice of 
female modesty, in a religious rite, is an offering not re- 
quired at our hands." Hints to an Inquirer. By Parsons 
Cooke and Joseph H. Towne. Boston : 1842. p. 59. The 
use of such an argument in support of affusion, presents an 
instance of what Cyprian might well denominate a '* press- 
ing necessity," 



164 CHURCH POLITY. 

Church, and the rule of the Church of England, by 
immersion.* 

Bossuet. We are able to make it appear, by the 
acts of councils, and by the ancient rituals, that for 
thirteen hundred years, baptism was thus adminis- 
tered throughout the whole Church, as far as pos- 
sible.! 

Von Coin. Immersion in water was general un- 
til the thirteenth century ; among the Latins it was 
then displaced by sprinkling, but retained by the 
Greeks. I 

Miinscher. Baptism was generally performed by 
immersion. The baptism of the sick, which was 
performed by aspersion, is mentioned for the first 
time, in the third century. § 

Usteri. The rite of baptism, by which the per- 
sons baptized were entirely immersed in water. 
Such is the testimony of the ancient witnesses. || 

Klee, Eoman Catholic Professor of Theology in 
the University at Bonn. Immersion was the mode 
of baptism ordinarily observed in the primitive age, 

* Journal from his embarking for Georgia, p. 11. 

•f Stennett against Russen. p. 176. 

J Dogmengesch. II. S. 203; also S. 208, where he cites 
the following passage from Thomas Aquinas. In immer- 
sione expressius reprsesentatur figura sepulturse Christi, et 
ideo hie modus baptizandi est communior et laudabilior. 
Summae, P. III. Qu. 66. Art. 6, 

§ Dogmengesch II. } 231. 

it Paulin. Lehrbegr, S. 224, 



CHURCH POLITY. 165 

in connection with which baptism by aspersion oc- 
curs as an exception to the rule.* 

Prof. Stuart. '* It is," says August!, '' a thing 
made out," viz. the ancient practice of immersion. 
So indeed all the writers who have thoroughly in- 
vestigated the subject. I know of no one usage of 
ancient times, which seems to be more clearly and 
certainly made out. I cannot see how it is possible 
for any candid man who examines the subject to 
deny this-t 

Penny Cyclopedia. The manner in which it 
[baptism] was performed, appears to have been at 
first by complete immersion. John baptized in the 
Jordan ; and in Enon, because there was much wa- 
ter there. The Ethiopian eunuch went down into the 
water to receive baptism from Philip. The words 
baptism and to baptize are Greek terms, which im- 
ply, in their ordinary acceptation, washing, or dip- 
ping. It was the practice of the English Church 
from the beginning, to immerse the whole body. % 

Kitto's Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature. The 
whole body was immersed in water. § 

* Lehrb. der Dogmengesch. II. S. 147. 

t Bibl. Repos. III. 359. 

JYol. III. 413, 414. 

§ Art. Baptism. I. 288. See also Coleman's Christian 
Antiq. p. 275, and the citations in Christian Rev. III. 
99-108. Hinton,Hist. Bap. 197-208. Booth, Pedobap. 
Exam. P. I. ch. 4. 



166 CHURCH POLITY. 

The views wbieli have been submitted, with refer- 
ence to the nature of the external act of baptism, derive 
strong confirmation from the universal and invariable 
practice of the Greek Church. It is to be supposed 
that the members of that communion are acquainted 
with their own language ; and therefore their mode of 
administering the rite of baptism affords a very sat- 
isfactory explanation of the meaning of the word. 
This has uniformly been immersion. Neudecker 
informs us, on the authority of the Orthodox Confes- 
sion of the Greek church, Metrophanes, Critopu- 
lus, Stourdza, and others, that this is their present 
practice.* This church has always strenuously as- 
serted the necessity of immersion to the validity of 
the ordinance ; and has, in consequence, condemned 
and rejected the affusions of the Latin Church. An 
effort was made to unite the Oriental and Western 
Churches, at the session of the Council of Florence, 
A.D. 1439 ; and the Eoman pontiff employed re- 
wards, threats, and promises, to induce the Greeks to 
accede to his terms of accommodation Mark of Ephe- 
sus, who was present at this council, maintained, in an 
encyclical letter addressed to all the Greek bishops 
and churches, the absolute impossibility of such a 
union, and that, too, upon the ground that the baptism 

*Munscher,Dogmengesch. ed. Neudecker, III. 618, where 
the requisite quotations are found. 



CHURCH POLITY. 167 

of the Latins was an entirely different thing from 
that of the Greeks.* 

It is a fatal objection to that perversion of the 
ordinance of baptism, which has become so common 
in western Christendom, that it is utterly destitute 
of support from apostolic or primitive practice, is at 
variance with the general practice of the Latins, for 
thirteen hundred years, and the uniform practice of 
the Grreeks, down to the present day. Affusion was 
first tolerated in the third century, on the plea of 
necessity, a necessity founded on a most unscriptural 
and portentous error. This error, the alleged ne- 
cessity of the rite to salvation, gave rise, as I shall 
presently show, to infant baptism; thus nullifying 
the ordinance, both in its mode and its subjects, and 
evincing the intimate connection which subsists be- 
tween corruption in doctrine and error in practice.! 

* Klee, Dogmengesch. II. 149. Moslieim, II. 502. 
Hague's Baptismal Question, p. 17. Coleman, Chr. Antiq. 
p. 266. 

t The history of sprinkling is as curious as it is obscure. 
We have seen how pouring was introduced in the case of 
Novatian, and sustained by the authority of Cyprian 
(t 258). The passage of Cyprian was introduced by Gra- 
tian into his Decretum (de Consecr. Dist. 4. cap. 126) A.D. 
1150. Yet in the time of Thomas Aquinas (f 1274), im- 
mersion was the more common practice, as we learn from 
the angelic doctor himself. He gives it as his judgment 
that although it is safer to baptize by immersion, because 
his was the more common, affusion or aspersion will an- 
swer the purpose, particularly in case of necessity. This 



168 CHURCH POLITY. 



II. SUBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 

The genius of Christianity is peculiar. Recog- 
nizing no proxies or representatives between the sin- 
necessity exists when, 1, there is a great multitude to be 
baptized ; 2, water is scarce ; 3, the administrator is feeble ; 
4, the candidate is feeble. A case occurred, under the first 
head, in the baptism of the Lithuanians, A.D. 1387. (It 
ought to be mentioned that the first ecclesiastical authority 
for sprinkling was given by the Council of Ravenna A.D. 
1311. The case of Stephen, referred to by Hinton, p. 191, 
seems somewhat apocryphal. Basnagti Monumen. I. Prse- 
fat V. 4. Robin. Hist. Bap. 429). The circumstances 
were these : Jagello, Grand Duke of Lithuania, aspired to 
the hand of Hedwig, the heiress of the Polish crown ; but 
neither she nor her subjects would favor his pretensions 
unless he became a good Catholic. Hence, although he 
had been baptized twice before, he consented to receive bap- 
tism again, in Cracow. Many of his subjects followed his 
example ; and the Duke rewarded each of them, for this 
pious act, with a new suit of clothes. This was too great a 
temptation to the rest of the Lithuanians ; they came in 
crowds to be baptized and get a new coat. Et quoniam 
labor immensus erat, &c., because the labor of baptizing 
such a multitude was too great, they were filed off into 
separate companies, and sprinkled, each company receiving 
a Christian name ; as the company of Peter, of Paul, &c. ; 
and every member of a particular company, bearing the 
name by which it was designated. Gieseler, Ch. Hist. § 124. 
Von Coin, II. 209. The only persons who opposed immer- 
sion on any other ground except necessity, were Theophro- 
nius and Eutychius, the disciples of Eunomius, who poured 
water upon the head and arms. The reason which they 
gave for this practice is not fit to be repeated here. Vid. 
Klee, 11, 148. 



CHURCH POLITY. 169 

ner and the Saviour, it urges its claims upon eacb 
individual of the race to whom it is sent, and its 
ultimate issues are suspended upon the personal 
reception or rejection of its gracious provisions. Sal- 
vation is found only in connection with the actual ex- 
istence of the conditions which it demands in those 
upon whom the blessing is conferred. The com- 
mands of Christ must be obeyed in person, or not 
at all. That one individual should be baptized for 
another is absurd, as is universally conceded ; but 
that one should perform for another the conditions 
on which alone the ordinance possesses any signifi- 
cance or value, although not so generally admitted, 
is equally opposed to the dictates of reason and con- 
science. The principle of substitution is, indeed, 
the grandest feature of the Christian scheme ; but 
it relates solely to the vicarious work of the man 
Christ Jesus, the substitution of the innocent for 
the guilty ; it does not affect the relations of the 
guilty among themselves. No moral being can do 
for another that which God requires at his own 
hands ; and if repentance and faith are required of 
every individual to whom the message of the gospel 
comes, it is manifest that the existence of these 
graces in one can exert no direct influence upon an- 
other, nor change the relation in which he stands to 
God. Christianity, from its very nature, excludes 
all human mediators, proxies, or sponsors. 

15 



170 CHURCH POLITY. 

Such being the genius of the Christian revela- 
tion, if we proceed to examine the character of 
those upon whom its duties are imposed, we may 
justly expect to find in them those qualifications 
which define and constitute a moral agent. If any 
individuals of our race are destitute of these quali- 
fications, we may fairly conclude that the gospel is 
not addressed to them. Infants and idiots are not 
moral agents ; Christianity therefore demands no- 
thing at their hands. They may, we believe they 
do, share in its benefits; but they do not come 
within the sphere of its requisitions. No Christian 
duty is enjoined upon them, for the obvious reason 
that they can perform none. The gospel does not 
require a natural and physical impossibility. 

Baptism is a Christian duty, and is obligatory 
only on moral agents. Believers are the only pro- 
per subjects. This position is sustained : 

1. By the evidence of the Scriptures. 

The commission which imparts validity and force 
to this ordinance was given in the following words : 
** Go ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature. He that belie veth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall 
be damned." Mark 16 : 15, 16 ; cf. Matt. 28 : 19. 
Here baptism is subsequent to faith, and is contem- 
plated as the duty only of one that believeth. When 
this commission was given, the ordinance was al- 



CHURCH POLITY. 171 

ready in existence and was familiar to the disciples. 
It is, therefore, relevant to revert to its previous 
history, to ascertain the meaning which they must 
have attached to the commission. Going back to 
'* the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ," the 
baptism of John, we find that he preached repent- 
ance, and the people were baptized of him, ** con- 
fessing their sins." Such is the testimony of Jo- 
sephus, who affirms that John's baptism was admin- 
istered on the supposition that *' the soul was puri- 
fied before by righteousness." * ''Adult Jews," 
says Scott, in his comment on this passage of Mark, 
** were the only persons, so far as we can find, whom 
John admitted to baptism." We search the gos- 
pels in vain for any instance of infant baptism. 
Children were brought to Jesus. They were bless- 
ed, but not baptized ; for it is expressly said that 
Jesus baptized not. John 4:2. 

Such was the state of the case when the apostles 
received the commission. The practice of baptism 
was settled, so that even if that commission had 
been given in general terms — if it had embraced 
simply the command to baptize, they could have 
had no hesitation with respect to the subjects of bap- 
tism. But the commission is not general nor am- 
biguous ; it is specific and plain. The direction to 
baptize is limited, in its application, to believers. 
* Antiq. B. 18, c. 5, § 2. 



172 CHUIICH POLITY. 

The efforts which are made to evade the obvious 
import of the commission are more plausible than 
forcible. Thus it is alleged, by a writer who as- 
sumes that infant baptism was already in use in the 
time of the apostles, that **in giving directions, or 
issuing a command, certain things are always taken 
for granted as being well known, and we only aim 
to be explicit enough to be clearly understood. For 
instance, a messenger is sent to the post-office. The 
order issued is, * go and bring my papers,^ or sim- 
ply, ' go' to the post-office.^ The messenger goes 
and brings letters, newspapers, and pampJdets, and 
he acts in accordance with the intention of him who 
sent him.^^ * A comrnand issued in terms so loose 

* Infant Baptism, by Wm. Hodges, A.M., Phila., 1844, 
p. 168. The practice of proselyte baptism among the Jews 
in the age of the apostles, by which this writer, after Wall, 
proves the existence of infant baptism, cannot itself be 
proved. Dr. Gill assures us there is no mention made of it, 
either by the Jewish doctors or the Christian fathers of the 
first three or four centuries. Dissertation on Pros. Bap. 
Dr. Lardner considers it " a mere fiction of the Rabbins by 
whom we have suffered ourselves to be imposed upon." 
Letter to Dr. Doddridge. "It is at length settled by the 
great critics of Germany, that the existence of a proselyte 
baptism, as a Jewish institution in the time of Christ, can- 
not be proved." Christian Review, 3, p. 203. This is the 
judgment of such men as Neander, Olshausen, Hase, Bot- 
tiger, Winer, &c. But proselyte baptism, if admitted to 
have existed at that time, would be decidedly against the 
practice of pedobaptists. Children that were born after the 
parents' adoption of the Jewish religion, were no^ to be bap- 



CHURCH POLITY. 173 

as these may suit the case which has been suggested; 
but it could never find its way into any human 
statute, much less would it be incorporated in the 
great law of baptism, enacted by the Head of the 
Church, for all nations and for all times. The case 
is not a parallel one. To make it correspond with 
the commission, the order must be issued thus : — 
** Go and bring my letters ; those that sue post-paid 
and addressed to me, bring ; those that are not post- 
paid, leave at the office." If the messenger were 
required not only to execute this commission, but 
to make it known for the benefit of his employer's 
correspondents, it would certainly be his duty to as- 
sure them that these terms are imperative, that a 
letter which was not post-paid, even if addressed to 
his employer, would not be received. Baptism is 
the ordinance by which an individual is addressed 
to Christ, indicated to be his ; but unless the other 
condition be fulfilled, unless faith be exercised, he 
will not be received. If the letter be not post-paid 
the address will not carry it to its destination. 
Whether some other arrangement may not have been 
made by his employer, by which those who cannot 
pay may secure the reception of their letters, is an- 
other question, which is not embraced in the terms of 

tized. Analogy would require that tlie children of Christian 
parents should not be baptized; only the children who 
were born before the parents came to the rite would be en- 
titled to participate in it. 

15* 



174 CHURCH POLITY. 

his commission. So also, whether provision has been 
made for the salvation of those who cannot believe, is 
a distinct question, not dependent for its solution 
upon the commission of the Redeemer, with refer- 
ence to the conditions of baptism. This explica- 
tion affords a satisfactory reply to the argument 
which affirms that if, according to the commission, 
infants cannot be baptized, they cannot be saved. 
The commission has no reference to infants, and 
therefore does not determine the conditions of their 
salvation. It is addressed only to such as may be 
taught and may become disciples. 

That the commission was so understood by the 
apostles is evident jfrom their own subsequent prac- 
tice. On the day of Pentecost Peter preached; 
many of his hearers were converted : *' then they 
that gladly received the word were baptized, and the 
same day were added to them about three thousand 
souls. And they continued in the apostles' doc- 
trine and fellowship," &c. Acts 2 : 41. Here 
the ordinance is restricted to those who ** gladly re- 
ceived the word." 

The next account of baptism occurs in Acts 8 : 
12. **When they believed Philip, preaching the 
things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name 
of Jesus, they were baptized, both men and women." 
Nothing can be more expressive of the extent and 
limitation of the ordinance. The specific mention 



CHURCH POLITY. 175 

of men and women excludes the supposition that 
children were also baptized. 

An argument in favor of infant baptism has been 
derived from the baptism of households. But it is 
founded upon the unwarrantable assumption that 
infants are necessarily included in a household. 
The baptism of entire households, upon a profession 
of faith, hasHbecome so common an occurrence that 
this argument has lost all its force. ** There were 
eight baptized families belonging to the Karen Bap- 
tist Mission before it was as old as the apostolic mis- 
sion, when the family of Lydia was baptized. The 
Christian Watchman of Jan. 29, 1841, presents au- 
thentic proof of the existence, at that time, of up- 
wards of fifty baptized households, connected with 
Baptist churches — every member of whom was bap- 
tized on profession of faith, and added to the 
Church." * Such were probably the constituents of 
the households mentioned in the New Testament. 
Cornelius was *' a devout man and one that feared 
God with all his house." Acts 10 : 2. Peter 
himself testifies that they had *' received the Holy 
Ghost," before he *' commanded them to be baptiz- 
ed. " In Acts 18 : 8, we are informed : '' Crispus 
the chief ruler of the synagogue believed on the 
Lord with all his house ; and many of the Corin- 

* Crowell, Church Member's Manual. Boston, 1847. P. 
168. 



176 CHURCH POLITY. 

tWans hearing, believed and were baptized." The 
household of Stephanus, baptized by Paul, " addict- 
ed themselves to the ministry of the saints,'' and 
could not therefore have been infants. 

Even admitting that these households embraced 
infants, the fact proves nothing in favor of infant 
baptism. The apostles had no authority to baptize 
them, and therefore could not have done it. The 
nature of the case excludes them. It is required of 
a bishop that he be " one that ruleth well his own 
house." But this requisition cannot apply to new- 
ly-born infants, who are incapable of government. 
The nature of the case restricts it to adults, or at 
least to children who are old enough to be ruled. 
** There is," says Carson, ** no axiom in mathemat- 
ics more clear, than that the households are nothing 
to the purpose of infant baptism. If the term 
household does not necessarily imply infants, then 
there is no evidence from the term that there were 
infants in those households. Again, as such phrase- 
ology is, in daily conversation, used with exceptions, 
so, though infants had been in those households, the 
known limitations of the commission would exclude 
them." * 

The fallacy of this argument has been fully ex- 
posed by a pedobaptist writer of great logical acu- 
men, who candidly admits ** that (historically con- 

* Carson on Baptism, N. Y., 1832. P. 307. 



CHURCH POLITY 



177 



sidered) there exists no sufficient positive evidence 
that the baptism of infants was instituted by the 
apostles, in the practice of the apostolic age. I 
have, I confess, no eye for these smoke-like wreaths 
of inference, this ever-widening spiral ergo from the 
narrow aperture of perhaps a single text ; or rather 
an interpretation forced into it by construing an 
idiomatic phrase in an artless narrative with the 
same absoluteness as if it had formed part of a mathe- 
matical problem. I start back from these inverted 
pyramids, where the apex is the base. If I should 
inform any one that I had called at a friend's house, 
but had found nobody at home, the family having 
all gone to the play ; and if he, on the strength of 
this information, should take occasion to asperse my 
friend's wife for immotherly conduct, in taking an 
infant, six months old, to a crowded theatre, would 
you allow him to press on the words nobody and all 
the family, in justification of the slander ? Would 
you not tell him that the words were to be interpret- 
ed by the nature of the subject, the purpose of the 
speaker, and their ordinary acceptation? and that 
he must or might have known that infants of that 
age would not be admitted into the theatre ? Exact- 
ly so with regard to the words, ' he and all his house- 
hold.' Had baptism of infants at that early period 
of the gospel been a known practice, or had this 
been previously demonstrated, then, indeed, the 



178 CHURCH POLITY. 

argument that in all probability there was one or 
more infants or young children in so large a family, 
would be no otherwise objectionable than as being 
superfluous, and a sort of anti-climax in logic. 
But if the words are cited as the proof, it would be 
a clear petitio principii, though there had been 
nothing else against it. But when we turn back 
to the Scriptures preceding the narrative, and find 
repentance and belief demanded as the terms and 
indispensable conditions of baptism — then the case 
above imagined applies in its full force. Equally 
vain is the pretended analogy from circumcision, 
which was no sacrament at all, but the means and 
mark of national distintcion." * 

The scriptural argument in proof of our position 
is corroborated by the account which the apostles 
give of the meaning or spiritual design of baptism. 
*' Know ye not that so many of us as were 
baptized into Christ were baptized into his death. 
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism, into 
death, that like as Christ was raised up from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life." Rom. 6 : 3. cf. 
Col. 2 : 12. Those who are baptized, are baptized 
into Christ's death, as dying with him, and as rising 
with him to a new life. Baptism is symbolical of a 

* Coleridge, Aids to Reflection. Burlington, 1829. P. 
220. 



CHURCH POLITY. 179 

change, of which infants are incapable. Equally 
expressive is the language of Gal. 3 : 27. ** For as 
many of you as have been baptized into Christ, 
have put on Christ." Here baptism implies a put- 
ting on of Christ, a fact which can be affirmed only 
of believers. 

If the apostolic commission, the import of the 
rite, and the practice of the apostles clearly evince 
that baptism is to be administered only to those who 
profess faith in the Redeemer, no respect is due to 
the objections which have been urged against this 
position on the ground that certain passages in the 
New Testament imply the baptism of infants ; such 
as Matt. 19 : 13-15*; Acts 2 : 38, 39 ; 1 Cor. 
7 : 12 - 14. All these passages are susceptible of 
an explanation which entirely accords with the bap- 
tism of believers, t 

2. The testimony of ecclesiastical antiquity. 

There exists no evidence in favor of the existence 
of infant baptism in the first century, but there is 
conclusive evidence agamst it. Justin Martyr, A.D. 
140, thus describes the rite of baptism: '*They 
who are persuaded and do believe that these things 

* Of this passage Carson remarks: "We might as well 
seek a warrant for infant baptism in Magna Charta, or the 
Bill of Rights. Baptism, p. 319. 

t For a discussion of these points, the reader is referred 
to the works on Baptism. Carson, pp. 319—338. Hinton, 
Booth, and others. 



180 CHUKGH POLITY. 

which are taught by us are true, and do promise to 
live according to them, are directed first to pray, 
and ask of God, with fasting, the forgiveness of 
their former sins ; and we also pray and fast together 
with them. Then we bring them to some place 
where there is water, and they are regenerated by 
the same way of regeneration by which we were 
regenerated ; for they are washed with water in the 
name of God the Father and Lord of all things, 
and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy 
Ghost. ''* 

There is another passage in Justin, which is 
pressed into the service of infant baptism. ^ ' There 
are many persons among us of both sexes, of sixty 
and seventy years of age, who were made disciples 
of Christ from their childhood, "f But to employ 
the passage in this manner is not only to make the 
writer contradict the Scriptures, but contradict him- 
self; for he has informed us, in the passage quoted 
above, that disciples are such as are ** persuaded 
and do believe." 

With just as little reason is the celebrated passage 
of IrenaBusJ alleged in support of this practice. It 
is too equivocal to constitute the basis of either ar- 
gument or inference. Many of the most judicious 

* Justin Apol. I. Wall's Translation. 
t Hodges on Infant Baptism, p. 112. 
JAdv. Her. Lib. XI. c. 18. 



CHURCH POLITY. 181 

and impartial critics, among pedobaptists, acknow- 
ledge that it affords no support for infant baptism. 

Baumgarten Grusius says ; '* The celebrated pas- 
sage in Irenaeus, is not to be applied to infant bap- 
tism."* 

The earliest allusion to the practice of infant bap- 
tism occurs in Tertullian, A.D. 200, and he opposes 
it.f A highly respectable writer in defence of infant 
baptism, has failed to appreciate the testimony of this 
Father, in consequence of following Wall, who him- 
self confesses that he does not understand Tertulli- 
an. J ''He had adopted," says this writer, ''the 
strange notion that baptism washed away all previ- 
ous sin, whether actual or original, and hence, the 
longer delayed, the better, when there appeared no 
immediate danger of death." This strange notion 
was by no means peculiar to Tertullian ; and, more- 
over, it was not the point from which he argued 
against infant baptism. Had Dr. Wall, and those 
who have followed in his footsteps, studied the theo- 

* Dogmengesch.. S 1209. So also Engelhardt, Th. 1. S. 
333. Mtinscher, 2, § 233. 

■f-De Bap. 18. Robinson and Hinton, Hist, of Bap. p. 
246, contend that there is no reference here to infant bap- 
tism ; but their argument is founded upon an erroneous 
translation of the passage. They render twrint, " they just 
know," instead of " let them know." 

J Infant Baptism, &c. By William Hodges, A.M., Rec- 
tor of Bruton Parish, Williamsburg, Va. Phila. 1844. pp. 
87-93. 

16 



182 CHURCH POLITY. 

logical system of Tertullian, they would have been 
better able to appreciate his position on this subject. 
He had to contend with two opposite parties, the 
one holding that all persons, even infants, must be 
baptized in order to be saved, and the other, that 
baptism is not necessary at all, if one has sufficient 
faith. Against the former, he contends in the well- 
known passage referred to by Wall. His funda- 
mental principle on the subject of baptism, as stated 
by himself, is : ** Baptism is the seal of faith. We 
are not baptized in order to cease from sin, but be- 
cause our hearts are already cleansed." * And he 
opposes infant baptism because it violates this prin- 
ciple, by placing baptism before faith. He, therefore, 
insists that the baptism of children should be delayed 
until they are old enough to " know Christ." He 
does not insist, as Wall and Mr. Hodges understood 
him, upon a mere delay of infant baptism, but 
on the postponement of baptism until the subjects 
of it should cease to be infants. But his op- 
ponents confronted him with the passage, ** Suffer 
little children," &c. From this we learn that in- 
fant baptism was a subject of controversy ; and yet 
that no tradition or divine command was pleaded by 
Tertullian' s opponents. Indeed, it deserves particu- 
lar notice, that in all the writings of Tertullian and 
Cyprian, both of whom treat of the subject as a 

• De Poeniten, 6. 



CHURCH POLITY. 18E 

matter of controversy, there is no allusion whatever 
to an apostolical tradition in favor of the practice. 
Is it possible that these fathers of tradition could 
have overlooked so important a point ? As Tertulli- 
an devised the method of meeting the heretics with 
the authority of tradition, would his opponents have 
spared him, if these weapons of his own could have 
been employed against him ? His judicious reply 
to the passage of Scripture above quoted, was, 
** Let them come when they are grown up, — let 
them come when they understand and are taught 
whither they come, — let them become Christians, 
when they are capable of knowing Christ." He 
undoubtedly carried his caution too far in regard to 
virgins and widows ; still the principle was a sound 
one, which required good evidence of piety before 
baptism.* 

3. The judgment of critics and historians. 

In accordance with the principle which I have 
assumed as my guide in these inquiries, that the 
Scriptures constitute the only rule of faith and prac- 
tice, it is pertinent to show that, even in the judg- 
ment of a lar2;e number of the abettors of infant 
baptism, it finds no support in the Word of God, 
and receives no countenance from the practice of 
those to whom the word of God was delivered, or 
of their immediate successors. 

* Christian Review, III. p. 214, 



184 CHURCH POLITY. 

An eminent German writer, who has examined 
this subject with equal learning and candor, remarks : 
*' Infant baptism was not yet customary in the first 
two centuries. The proofs which are alledged for its 
existence in the apostolic age, from the mention in 
Acts, of the baptism of whole families, and in the 
second century, from a passage in Irenaeus, in which 
he speaks of the regeneration of children, are not 
satisfactory. Tertullian declared himself, most ex- 
plicitly, against it, upon the ground that it imposed 
too heavy a responsibility upon the sponsors, and 
would be more beneficial to the children themselves, 
when they had arrived at an age in which they 
could know Christ, and appreciate the importance of 
baptism. In the time of Origen, however, infant 
baptism was already customary in the Church, at 
least, in the Egyptian portion of it, and was deemed 
an ordinance of the apostles. Origen vindicated its 
necessity on the same grouxid as that subsequently 
alledged by Augustine, viz. : that baptism was re- 
presented in the New Testament, as, in general, 
necessary to salvation ; and, therefore, children 
ought to be baptized.* 

The celebrated philologist Koraes, one of the first 
Greek scholars of modern times, says : *' Infant 
baptism seems to have been introduced in the third 

* Engelhardt. Dogmengeschichte. Th. 1. S. 333. Er- 
langen, 1839. 



CHURCH POLITY. 18 

century ; at first only in Africa, subsequently by 
degrees also in other countries. Not venturing to 
decide upon this matter we would only say, that 
even supposing infants to have been baptized in the 
apostolic times or shortly afterwards, the practice 
was neither uniformly adopted, nor always nor 
everywhere observed. This is evident from numer- 
ous instances of persons living in or about the 
fourth century, who were not baptized until after 
they had reached the age of manhood. Such was 
the case with Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Chrys- 
ostom, Basil, Gregory; and among the emperors 
with Constantine, Constantius, Valentinian, Gratian, 
Theodosius, and with innumerable other persons. 
The discourses addressed by many of the Fathers 
of the same century to persons deferring baptism, 
prove the same thing. It is further confirmed 
by the canons of several councils, and also by the 
well-known anecdote of Athanasius the Great, who, 
when a boy, on a certain occasion whilst at flay, 
catechised and baptized his play-fellows, who, until 
then, had remained unbaptized. The time when 
infant baptism was generally introduced cannot 
easily be determined."* 

* Leslie's Hist. View of the Baptists, p. 33. Here we 
have the children of Christian parents remaining unbap- 
tized. The first instance on record of the baptism of a 
child, is that of Galates, the dying son of the Arian empe- 

16* 



186 CHURCH POLITY. 

** All the earlier traces of infant baptism are 
very doubtful. Tertullian is the first who refers to 
it ; and he censures it. Origen and Cyprian, on 
the contrary, defend it. In the fourth century its 
validity was generally acknowledged, although the 
church Fathers often found it necessary to warn 
against the delay of baptism. Even Pelagius did 
not dare to call the correctness of it in question. 
Augustine pointed out the removal of original sin, 
and the sins of the children, as its definite object ; 
and through his representations was its universal 
diffusion promoted."* 

** As baptism signified an entrance into fellow- 
ship with Christ, it readily followed from the nature 
of the case, that a profession of faith in Jesus as 
the Redeemer, should be made by the candidate at 
the time. Since baptism was thus immediately 
connected with a conscious and voluntary accession 
to the Christian fellowship, and faith and baptism 
wer9> always united, it is highly probable that the cus- 
tom of infant baptism was not practised in this age. 
From the example of the baptism of whole families 
we can by no means infer the existence of infant 
baptism. One passage, 1 Cor, 16 : 15, shows the 

ror Valens, who was baptized by order of the monarch, who 
swore that he would not be contradicted. Christian 
Review, p. 6, May, 1846. 
* Munscher (Ed. Von C<)ln) Dogmengesch. I. S. 469. 



CHURCH POLITY. 187 

incorrectness of such an inference; for it thence 
appears that the whole family of Stephanas, who all 
received baptism from Paul, was composed of adult 
members."* 

" Commands or plain and certain examples, in the 
New Testament, relating to it, I do not find.^f 

" There is no express command for infant baptism 
found in the New Testament* "J 

If infant baptism be thus destitute of support in 
the word of God, an inquiry naturally arises as to 
its origin, and the reasons for its introduction. To 
this the observations of a learned living historian 
furnish a satisfactory reply. '*The first public 
recognition of infant baptism was A. D. 250. It 
may be supposed to have existed anterior to that 
period, and to have been gTadually working its way 
into the church, along with other corruptions. But 
the grand error, under sanction of which it obtained 
prevalence, was that baptism and regeneration was 
one and the same thing. So soon as that came to 
be a general belief, it was deemed necessary, in order 

* Neander, in Bibl. Kepos. IV. p. 272. 

t Prof. Stuart, Bibl. Repos. Ill, p. 385. 

JKnapp. Theology, II. p. 535. Storr and Flatt 
speak of the silence of the N. T. concerning it. Bibl. 
Theol. p. 527. See also, Gieseler, Church Hist. I, pp. 93, 98, 
195. Mosheim, I. p. 167. Booth has collected a host of 
similar witnesses, in his Pedobaptism Examined. Part II, 
ch. I. 



188 CHURCH POLITY. 

to insure the spiritual illumination of infants, to 
have them baptized."* 

It thus appears that the changes which have been 
introduced since the age of the Apostles, with 
reference both to the subjects and the mode of 
baptism, were founded upon a portentous error, the 
identity of baptism and regeneration, and, there- 
fore, the necessity of the rite to salvation. In im- 
mediate connection with this, we find another error 
of equal magnitude. The great patron of affusion 
and infant baptism, Cyprian, furnishes the first dis- 
tinct allusion to a practice, the existence of which 
would scarcely be deemed credible, were it not most 
amply attested, the communion of infants at the 
Lord's supper. This practice was coextensive with 
infant baptism, and rested upon the same grounds, 
the necessity of the rite to salvation. ** It was com- 
mon in Africa in Cyprian's time, i. e. in the third 
century, to give the sacramental elements even 
to children; and this custom was gradually intro- 
duced into other churches. But in the twelfth 
century this practice fell into disuse in the West ; 

* Neander, Hist. Chr. E,eligion, p. 361. So, also, Meier, 
Dogmengesch, S. 132. Giessen, 18i0. Mosheim, I, p. 230. 
Gieseler, I, p. 159, note 4. " If we except Tertullian,*^ 
says Wall, " Vincentius (A, D. 419) is the first man upon 
record that ever said that children might be saved without 
baptism." Booth, Pedobap. Exam. P. II, eh. 3, § 8, 



CHURCH POLITY. 189 

although in the East it continues to the present 
day,"* 

Infant baptism and infant communion rest on the 
same foundation, the authority of the Fathers of the 
third century. 

III. Efficacy of baptism. 

On this point, professors of Christianity are divid- 
ed into three great parties, the first of which regards 
baptism as an act of obedience to Christ, and a 
symbol, or sign of certain truths implied in the ordi- 
nance ; the second, as a seal or pledge of spiritual 
blessings ; while the third exalts it to the dignity of 
an efficacious instrument of grace, some ascribing to 
it a physical, and others only a hyperphysical, or 
moral efficacy, f Of these various theories, the 
second and third are unscriptural, and besides, are 
encumbered with other serious objections ; so that 
an elucidation of the grounds upon which the first is 
sustained, will furnish their appropriate refutation. 

The Scriptures no where ascribe to baptism any 

* Knapp, Theology, II. p. 555. Mosheim, I. p. 230. § 3, 
note. Gieseler,!. p. lo9. Mttnscher (Ed. Von Coin), I. S. 
481. Meir, § 68. S. 163. Hinton, Hist, Bap. pp. 323-330. 
Chillingworth, Works, p. 744. Phila. 1841. 

fTurrettini Op. Loc. XVIII. Qusest. 8. Mtinscher, (Ed. 
Neudecker) III. S. 601-628. Hinton, Hist. Bap. chap. X. 
" Baptism is the divinely appointed form of ratifying God's 
covenant of grace with every believer . . . and is in its na- 
ture a pledge, on his part, of spiritual blessings," &c. 
Crowell, Ch. Mem. Manual, p. 152. 



190 CHURCH POLITY, 

peculiar efficacy, physical or moral, essential or ac- 
cidental. It is simply the appointed method of pro- 
fessing faith in the Redeemer ; and if, in some 
places, a preeminence is given to it oyer other acts 
of obedience, it is because it is the first of a series 
which are incumbent on the believer. " That bap- 
tism and the Lord's Supper are seals of the covenant, 
is a doctrine so common, and a phraseology so establish- 
ed, that it is received without question as a first 
principle. They who measure truth by the attain- 
ments of our ancestors, look upon the questioning 
of this dogma as a kind of impiety and heresy ; 
and even the modern Independents, who have pro- 
fessed to be guided solely by the Bible, have very 
generally continued to speak in the same language. 
While I highly respect and value the ancient writers 
who speak in this manner, I strongly protest against 
it as unscriptural, and as laying a foundation for re- 
ceiving other things on the authority of man. Is 
there any Jewish tradition more void of scriptural 
authority, than that which designates baptism and 
the Lord's Supper seals of the New Covenant ?■ 
There is not in the New Testament any single por- 
tion that can bear such a meaning. And what can 
the wisest of men know about these things, but 
what God has told us ? He has not said that bap- 
tism is a seal. Circumcision was a seal of the right- 
eousness of the faith of Abraham. This was God's 



CHURCH POLITY, 



191 



seal to that truth, till the letter was abolished. The 
spirit of the truth is the seal, and the circumcisioD of 
the heart by him, is the thing signified by cir- 
cumcision in the flesh. The circumcised nation was 
typical of the Church of Christ; for the apostle 
says ' * we are the circumcision which worship Grod 
in the spirit;" and ** circumcision is that of the 
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter.'' The 
circumcision of the Jews was the letter, of which 
the circumcision of the heart in Christians is the 
spirit. The Christian, then, has a more exalted seal 
than circumcision. He has the Spirit of God, 
*' whereby he is sealed unto the day of redemption." 
Eph. 4 : 30. When sinners believe in Christ, 
they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 
which is the " earnest of their inheritance until the 
redemption of the purchased possession." Eph. 1 : 
13. The seal, then, that comes in the room of cir- 
cumcision, is the seal of the Spirit. When the Holy 
Spirit himself, in the heart of the believer, is the 
seal of God's truth, there is no need of any other 
seal. Baptism represents the belief of the truth 
in a figure, and takes it for granted that they are 
believers to whom it is applied ; but it is no seal of 
this. They may appear to be Christians to-day, and 
therefore ought to be baptized ; to-morrow they may 
prove the contrary, and therefore they cannot have 



192 CHURCH POLITY. 

been sealed by baptism. He that is once sealed by 
the Spirit, is secured to eternity." * 

This theory, although unscriptural, is, except in 
its application to infant baptism, comparatively 
harmless, since it supposes the existence of such 
spiritual qualifications in the baptized, as are con- 
nected with the enjoyment of spiritual blessings. 
But the third theory is open to more serious objec- 
tions; for, although various representations of it 
are given by its different advocates, it involves, as 
its distinctive principle, the assumption that bap- 
tism sustains a direct relation to the germination 
and growth of the divine life in the soul ; and is, 
therefore, in general, necessary to salvation. Wheth- 
er this ordinance be described as the laver of 
regeneration, the bath in which original sin is wash- 
ed away, or the medium through which forgiveness 
of sin, and the influences of the Spirit are imparted, 
the radical idea of the theory is the same. It makes 
the acceptance of a sinner with God, in some way 
dependent upon his reception of baptism. But if 
the Scriptures furnish us with such a statement of 
the ground of a sinner's acceptance as excludes bap- 
tism, as well as all other works, the entire theory is 
false. That this is the case, I shall endeavor to 
show. 

* Carson, on Baptism, pp. 375-377. Georgia Pulpit, p. 
142. 



CHURCH POLITY. 193 

• 

With respect to the plan of salvation, the Scrip- 
tures are sufficiently explicit. They teach that the 
ground of a sinner's acceptance with God, is not 
any thing done by him, or in him, but is the perfect 
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the substitute 
of guilty man, he has met all the claims of the di- 
vine government against him, has obeyed the law, 
and suffered its penalty ; - and has thus brought in 
an everlasting righteousness, which is imputed to 
the believer for justification. As soon as a sinner 
truly believes, he is justified, accepted, and his final 
salvation secured. Faith sustains this peculiar re- 
lation to justification, that it appropriates Him who 
is our righteousness. It is, therefore, essential to our 
acceptance with God ; but nothing else is. To make 
baptism thus essential, which is not the act by which 
we trust in Christ, but simply an act of obedience 
rendered by one already justified, is to confound the 
consequent with the antecedent; to mistake the 
symbolical expression of a believer's love to Christ 
on account of the remission of sin — a love which 
manifests itself effectually by keeping his command- 
ments — for the medium through which that remis- 
sion is conferred. 

That this is the teaching of the Scriptures on this 

subject, is evinced by the following, among many 

passages : ' ' He that believeth hath everlasting 

life." John 5 : 24 ; 3 : 16, 36. *' With the heart 

17 



194 CHURCH POLITY. 

• 

man belie veth unto righteousness/' Eom. 10 : 10. 
'* By grace are ye saved through faith." Eph. 2 : 
8. ** Being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5 : 
1. *' They which are of faith, the same are the 
children of Abraham." Gal. 3:7. ^^ The blood 
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
1 John 1:8. '' Ye are all the children of God by 
faith in Jesus Christ." Gal. 3: 26. cf. John 5 : 
24 ; Acts 13 : 39 ; Rom. 3 : 21, 22, 25, 26 ; 4 : 
5; 10: 4; Phil, 3 : 8-10; John 1 : 12; Acts 
10: 42; John 3: 14-18, 40; 20: 31; Rom. 
10: 9. 

The case of the Philippian jailer is decisive on 
this point. His inquiry had distinct reference to 
the plan of salvation. He came, a convicted sinner, 
to Paul and Silas, and sought direction. *'Sirs, 
what must I do to be saved ? " Had they omitted 
in their reply anything essential, they would have 
misled the inquiring jailer. The circumstances 
of the case demanded that they should comprehend 
in their instructions all that was necessary to salva- 
tion. But they simply say : ** Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy 
house." Acts 16 : 31. The absence of any refer- 
ence to- baptism here shows that, in the judgment 
of the apostles, it has no reference to that primary 



CHURCH POLITY. 195 

act of faith, by which a penitent obtains the forgive- 
ness of sin. 

From these considerations, and others which will 
be adduced, it is evident that the theory which sus- 
pends the remission of sin upon the reception of 
baptism, is contrary to the first principle of the Gos- 
pel of Christ. 

Another fatal objection to this theory, is found in 
the fact that cases occur, in the New Testament, of 
.persons who received the assurance of forgiveness 
prior to baptism. Among these, are the woman 
who was a sinner, the sick of the palsy, and the 
dying malefactor.* Moreover, it is contradicted by 
Christian experience. Every converted man knows 
that the assurance of forgiveness is obtained by 
faith in Christ. Thousands of such have been 
brought to the knowledge of the truth, have rejoiced 
in Grod through our Lord Jesus Christ, and afterwards 
put on Christ in baptism, not to obtain remission of 
sin, but because they had already been assured of 
possessing that blessing, and without which they 
would not have ventured to approach the emblematic 
grave. They were conscious of being constrained 
to do this by love to the Redeemer ; and they re- 
joiced in the consolation that '* every one that loveth 
is born of God and knoweth God,'^ and '' whosoever 

* Luke 7 : 37-48. Matt. 9 : 2. Luke 23 : 39-43. 



196 CHURCH POLITY. 

is bom of Grod overcometh the world.'' * In addi- 
tion to this it is worthy of remark, that a large por- 
tion of the most conscientious and devoted servants 
of God, in every part of the world, are, in the judg- 
ment of some of the most strenuous advocates of 
this theory, yet unbaptized, and, therefore, must re- 
main unpardoned. They are yet in their sins. 
They have no hope in Christ, no assurance of accept- 
ance with God, and dying in this state, they must 
encounter his wrath in the world to come. A theo- 
ry which involves such shocking sentiments, as its 
legitimate consequences, which comes so directly in 
conflict with Christian consciousness, must be a 
false and unwarrantable assumption. 

If any thing further were neccessary to expose the 
falsity of this theory, we might refer to PauFs view 
of the relative importance of baptism. As a preach- 
er of the Gospel, he exulted in his mission ; for the 
gospel is the power of God to salvation, to every one 
that believeth. Rom. 1 : 16. In 1 Cor. 1 : 17, 
he says: '* Christ sent me not to baptize, but to 
preach the gospel." But in Acts 26 : 17, 18, he 
affirms that " Christ sent him to the Gentiles, to 
turn them from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God ; " in other words, to ac- 
complish their salvation. If baptism sustains the 
relation to salvation which is ascribed to it by this 

* 1 John 4:7:5:4. 



CHURCH POLITY. 197 

theory, the manner in which the apostle underrates 
it, is utterly unaccountable. If the ordinance were 
indispensable, in general, to secure remission of sin, 
he could not have affirmed that Christ sent him not 
to baptize ; for upon that supposition the preaching 
of the gospel, without baptism, would be a nullity. 
It would fail to accomplish the gi'eat end for which 
the Son of God was exalted as a Prince and a Sa- 
viour. Acts 5 : 31. 

Although this theory is thus subversive of the 
terms of acceptance with God, and opposed to Chris- 
tian consciousness, its abettors labor to sustain it 
from the word of God, referring to several passages 
in its support. Before examining them, it may be 
well to make the general remark, that if they incul- 
cated the error in question, the interpreter would 
find it impossible to reconcile them with other por- 
tions, as well as with the general tenor of the Scrip- 
tures. Unless, therefore, he would place divine 
truth in conflict with itself, he must resort to some 
other interpretation of these passages. It would be 
better to leave them unexplained than to elicit from 
them a sentiment so essentially at war with the 
whole Christian system. But these passages, so far 
from presenting any real difficulty, are susceptible, 
most easily and naturally, of an interpretation which 
keeps them in harmony with the doctrine of the 
apostles- 

17* 



198 CHURCH POLITr. 

These passages will now be adduced. 

Mark 16 : 16. He that belie veth and is baptized 
shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned. 

The nature of these restrictions will be sufficiently 
clear, if we consider that faith, implying of course 
regeneration, is the first development of spiritual 
life in the soul, and baptism is its first outward mani- 
festation. As soon as a sinner believes, he is to 
confess Christ in this ordinance. This is his first 
act of obedience. It is therefore perfectly natural 
that baptism should be selected from the various 
Christian duties, as the representative of the whole. 
The meaning of the passage, therefore, is, he that 
believes and acts accordingly — who possesses that 
genuine faith which works by love, and purifies the 
heart — shall be saved. The language of the com- 
mission, when properly explained, attaches no more 
importance to baptism than to any other Christian 
duty. It is the spirit of obedience which it demands ; 
and baptism is indicated as the expression of that 
spirit, because it stands first in the series of Christian 
duties. In perfect accordance with these sentiments 
is the teaching of Paul, in Kom. 10: 10. '* If 
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, 
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath 
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For 
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness 



CHURCH POLITY. 199 

[justification], and with the mouth confession is 
made unto salvation." The apostle in this portion 
of the epistle contrasts the method of justification 
on which the Jews insisted, which was legal, and, 
when properly understood, perfectly impracticable, 
with the gospel method of salvation, which pre- 
scribes no such severe terms, but simply requires 
cordial faith and open profession. Confession is the 
fruit and external evidence of faith, assuring us of 
its vitality and power, as wrought by the Spirit of 
God. *' No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but 
by the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. 12: 3. ^'Whosoever 
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God 
dwelleth in him and he in God*" 1 John, 4 : 15. 
Hence the necessity of a public confession of 
Christ unto salvation is asserted in the Scriptures. 
Matt. 10 : 32. Luke, 12 : 8. It is certain that he 
who deliberately refuses to confess Christ will be 
lost, because this refusal proves that he possesses no 
genuine faith ; but this confession may be made 
fully and clearly prior to baptism, and, as in the case 
of dying penitents, without the intervention of bap- 
tism at all. *' Though faith and confession are both 
necessary" observes an able expositor, *' they are 
not necessary on the same grounds, nor to the same 
degree. The former is necessary as a means to an 
end, as without faith we can have no part in the 
justifying righteousness of Christ ; the latter as a 



200 CHURCH POLITY. 

duty, the performance of which circumstances may 
render impracticable. In like manner Christ 
declares baptism, as the appointed means of con- 
fession, to be necessary ; not however as a sine qua 
non, but as a command, the obligation of which 
providential dispensations may remove ; as in the 
case of the thief on the cross.''* 

John 3 : 5. Except a man be born of water 
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
of God. 

Nothing but an invincible necessity would author- 
ize such an interpretation of this passage as would 
elicit from it the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. 
This necessity does not exist. Many of the most 
learned and judicious commentators interpret the 
expression water and the spirit, by hendiadis, 
spiritual water. This mode of expression is com- 
mon in the New Testament. Comp. Matt. 4 : 16. 
In the region and shadow of death, i. e. the region 
of the shadow of death. 1 Cor. 2:4. In the 
demonstration of the powerful spirit. Col. 2 : 8. 
Acts, 17 : 25. t This interpretation is confirmed 
by the fact that our Lord, in contrasting spiritual 
with natural regeneration, in the next verse, does 
not mention water at all, but merely opposes the 

* Hodge on Romans, p. 436. 

t Grotius in loco. Calvin, Winer, Teller. See also Dr. 
Dagg's detailed examination of the passage, Phila. 1839. 



CHURCH POLITY. 201 

spirit to the flesh, as the original principles of these 
different kinds of birth. If, however, Christ be 
supposed to refer to baptism, it must be under the 
same restrictions that are found in the apostolic 
commission, which has already been explained. 

Acts, 2 : 88. Repent and be baptized every one 
of you for the remission of sins, [or, literally, unto 
the remission.] 

This clause is easily understood by comparing it 
with others of similar construction. John says, in 
Matt. 3: 11, ''I baptize you with water unto 
repentance." He did not mean that repentance was 
procured, but was professed, in baptism ; for he 
demanded of those who approached the baptismal 
stream *' fruits meet for repentance," the evidence 
that they had already repented. But Peter has 
given us his own views, in Acts 3:19. *' Repent 
ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may 
be blotted out," &c. If baptism is as inseparable 
from forgiveness as repentance is, the apostle is 
guilty of an unpardonable omission. If he has 
made no omission, but has stated fully the conditions 
of pardon, the dogma in question receives no sup- 
port from his authority. 

Acts 22 : 16. Arise and be baptized and wash 
away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord. 

As baptism is symbolical of the purification of the 
soul, it is perfectly natural, because in accordance 



202 CHURCH POLITY. 

witt a very common mode of speech, that the symbol 
should be put for the reality. Paul may be said to 
have washed away his sins in baptism, because in 
that sacred rite he made a public declaration of the 
fact. If this passage stood alone, it might occasion 
some difficulty, but taken in connection with the 
uniform teaching of the word of Grod, which suspends 
forgiveness of sin upon the exercise of faith in the 
Redeemer, it affords no countenance to the dogma 
of baptismal regeneration.* 

* For the various forms in which this dogma is held, the 
reader is referred to Hinton on Baptism, chap. 8. 10 ; Howell 
on Communion, chap. XII. ; Ferdinand Walter, Lehrbuch 
des Kirchenrechts (Bonn. 1839), § 274, Landis' Review of 
Cambellism, in Biblical Repository (new series), vol 1, to- 
gether with Mr. Campbell's reply, in the same work. Bap- 
tist Preacher, vol. 2, sermon by Rev. J. B. Jeter. The Con- 
fessions of Faith of the various denominations. The view 
of the Baptists is thus set forth in the Baptist Catechism : 
Charleston, S. C, 1813, a work originally published by the 
Baptists of Great Britain, A.D. 1689, and adopted by the 
Philadelphia Association, in 1742, "Quest. 97. What is 
Baptism ? Ans. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Tes- 
tament, instituted by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party 
baptized a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death, 
and burial, and resurrection, of his being ingrafted into 
him, of remission of sins, and of his giving himself up unto 
God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of 
life." 



CHAPTEK XV. 



THE lord's supper. 



Our blessed Lord, on the night preceding his cnici- 
fixion, instituted a solemn memorial of his death, to 
be religiously observed by his followers, until the 
end of time. To this the apostle refers in the fol- 
lowing words : ^*I have received of the Lord that 
which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord 
Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, 
took bread : And when he had given thanks, he 
brake it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, 
which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of 
me. After the same manner also he took the cup, 
when he had supped, saying. This cup is the New 
Testament in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye 
drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as 
ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew 
the Lord's death till he come." * The nature and 
the perpetuity of this ordinance are here expressly 
declared ; and as the apostles were instructed to 
teach the churches to observe all things whatsoever 
Christ had commanded them,t the death of the 

* 1 Cor. 11 : 23-26; cf. Matt, 26, Luke 21, Mark 15. 
t Matt 28 : 20. 



204 CHURCH POLITY. 

Redeemer was universally commemorated among 
them in this manner. 

The titles by which this service is known in the 
Scriptures are these : the Lord's Supper, the Lord's 
Table, the Communion of the Body and Blood of 
Christ, the New Testament in his Blood, the Break- 
ing of Bread, and the Eucharist. Ecclesiastical 
writers have referred to it, under other appellations, 
as the sacrament, the mass ; but these are not to be 
found in the word of God.* 

1. The nature and design of the ordinance. 

It is simply commemorative, and might be styled 
a symbolical sermon on the death of the Redeemer. 
** The Lord's Supper was not appointed to be a test 
of brotherly love among the people of God. It was 
intended to teach and exhibit th^ most interesting of 
all truths, and the most wonderful of all transac- 
tions. The design of the great institutor was, that 
it should be a memorial of God's love to us, and of 
Immanuel's death for us ; that, the most astonishing 
favor ever displayed ; this, the most stupendous fact 
that angels ever beheld."! The erroneous notion that 
this ordinance furnishes a test of Christian fellow- 
ship, is founded on a misinterpretation of the lan- 

* Picteti Theologia Christiana, Lib. XIV., cap. 5. Tur- 
rettini Theol. Elenc, Loc. XIX. Quaest. 21. Opera. III. 
p. 359. New York, 1847. 

t Booth, Vindication, sec. 1. Howell on Communion, p. 
105, Phila. A. B. P, S. 1847. 



CHURCH POLITY. 205 

guage of Paul, 1 Cor. 10 : 16. *' The cup of 
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of 
the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, 
is it not the communion of the body of Christ?'' 
The apostle is here urging his brethren to '* flee 
from idolatry;" and his argument is as follows : 
He who partakes of the elements of the Lord's 
Supper, indicates, by that act, his communion or con- 
nexion with Christ : so also, he who eats of the sacri- 
fices offered to idols, places himself in communion with 
idols. The two things are therefore inconsistent. ' * I 
would not that ye should have fellowship with 
devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and 
the cup of devils : ye cannot be partakers of the 
Lord's table, and of the table of devils." The 
passage refers to fellowship with Christ, and not 
with each other, and furnishes additional proof that 
the design of the ordinance is to ** shew the Lord's 
death." * 

It is one of the enormous figments of Popery, that, 
in the Lord's Supper, *' Christ is truly present, and 
indeed in such a way, that Almighty God, who was 
pleased at Cana, in Galilee, to convert water into 
wine, changes the inward substance of the conse- 
crated bread and wine into the body and blood of 

* This was the view of the older Baptists. See the Bap- 
tist Catechism (London, 1689), Quest. 102. 

18 



206 CHURCH POLITY. 

Christ." * This is the doctrine of transubstantia- 
tion. Its gross absurdity is manifest both from rea- 
son and from Scripture. It is contradicted by the 
clear and undisputable testimony of our senses, 
which affirm that no change has occurred in the 
nature and properties of the bread and wine. Con- 
fidence in the evidence of the senses is a law of our 
nature. If it is to be rejected, the Bible must be 
rejected with it, for our belief of the Scriptures 
rests upon the evidence of the senses, f This dogma 
is opposed to the universal observation of mankind, 
that all bodies (material substances,) must occupy 
definite portions of space, and cannot be in more 
than one place at the same time ; for according to 
this tenet, every portion of consecrated bread is 
really the whole material body of the Saviour. 
His body is therefore present in Heaven and in 
many different places on the earth, at the same 
moment. Again, the bread and wine, after they 
are consecrated, are subject to decomposition, which 
would not be the case if they were transmuted into 
the glorified body of the Redeemer. They remain, 
what the apostle calls them, even after their conse- 
cration, bread and wine. J 

* Mohler, Symbolism, p. 311. 

t 1 Jno. 1:3; Jno. 3 : 11 ; Luke 24 : 29. • 

% l.Cor. 10 : 16 ; 11 : 26. Carson on Transubstantiation, 
Protestant Quarterly Review. I. p. 137-178, a most masterly 
argument. Storr and Flatt, Bibl. Theol. p. 545. 



' CIlURCn POLITY. 207 

So far as this monstrous dogma pretends to any 
support from the Scriptures, it rests upon the literal 
interpretation of expressions which are manifestly 
figurative. The words, " this is my body," are sup- 
posed to affirm the actual presence of Christ's body 
in the elements of the eucharist. But Christ also says, 
** I am the vine, the way, the door,'' kc. When, 
therefore, he affirms of the bread, *' this is my body," 
we have his own authority for understanding him to 
teach us that the bread is the sign or symbol of his 
body. No maxim of common sense is more plain , than 
that language must be interpreted figuratively, when- 
ever a literal interpretation would teach an absurdity. 
This principle is recognized by the heathen in a case 
parallel with this. ** When," says Cicero, **we 
call fruits, Ceres, and wine, Bacchus, we employ 
the language of common life ; for who is so stupid 
as to suppose that what he eats is God?"* It 
was, also, applied to the interpretation of this ex- 
pression of our Lord by the earliest Fathers, t 

Upon this sandy foundation the papacy rears its 
portentous doctrine of the sacrifice of the mass for 
the living and the dead, by which Christ is dishon- 
ored and the Man of Sin exalted ; a doctrine which 

* Nat. Deor, III. 16. 

t Tertullian, Lib. IV. contra Marc. Hoc est corpus meum 
id est figura corporis mei. August. Epist. ad Adimant. cap. 
12, signum daret corporis sui. Vid Picteti Theol. Lib. 
XIV. cap. 6, 



208 CHURCH POLITY. 

contradicts the testimony of the earliest and pui^est 
witnesses to the truth, and totally subverts the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God. * 

In consequence of the exaggerated notion of the 
holiness of the consecrated elements, transmuted as 
they were into the real body, blood, and divinity of 
the Lord, the practice was introduced of withholding 
the cup from the laity, and thus mutilating the or- 
dinance, contrary to the divine command : ** Drink 
ye all, of it." With respect to the perpetrators of 
this impious assault upon an institution of Christ, it 
is said, by a sophistical advocate of Rome : ** A 
pious dread of desecrating by spilling and the like, 
even in the most conscientious ministration, the 
form of the sublimest and the holiest, whereof the 
participation can be vouchsafed to man, was the feel- 
ing which swayed their miads. ' ' f Upon such slight 
pretences do men venture to annul a divine statute. 

The Scriptural doctrine on this subject is, that 
'* worthy receivers outwardly partaking of the visible 

* For the history of Transubstantiation and its affiliated 
errors, which are of comparatively recent origin, vide Mun- 
scher Dogmengeschichte. (Ed. Von Coin, ^ 103, 104, 142— 
145. Knapp, Theol. II. § 146). The Protestant's Evidence, 
by Simon Birckbek, p. 37. London, 1635. Bowling, Hist. 
Romanism, pp. 192, etc. Gibbon, Rom. Emp. IV. p. 160, 
who says : " Innocent III. may boast of the two most sig- 
nal triumphs over sense and reason : the establishment of 
transubstantiation, and the origin of the inquisition " 

t Mohler, Symbolism, p. 322. 



CHURCH POLITY. 209 

elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly 
by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and 
corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon 
Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death : 
the body and blood of Christ being then not cor- 
porally or carnally, but spiritually present to the 
faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements 
themselves are to the outward senses."* 

2. The communicants. 

The Lord's Supper is a social ordinance, and is 
celebrated by a church in its distinctive character, as 
a body of baptized believers. Whatever, therefore, 
determines the conditions of membership, defines 
also the terms of communion. That baptism is 
prior to the supper, in the order of their observance, 
and, therefore, that only the baptized have a right 
to commune, is so unquestionably the teaching of 
the Word of God, and was so manifestly the prac- 
tice of the primitive churches, that we are not sur 
prised at the almost universal agreement of Chris- 
tians on this point. The splendor of a great name 
may, for a time, give prominence to the opposite 
error, which inverts the order of the rites ; and a 
spurious charity may plead for its adoption ; but the 
subject is too plain to admit of much diversity of 
sentiment or practice. It has, indeed, scarcely ever 
been deemed worthy of a labored discussion. All 

• Baptist Confession of Faith, Chap. XXXI. § 7. 
18* 



210 CHURCH POLITY. 

the professed followers of the Redeemer, in all ages, 
with the exception of a very small minority, have 
concurred in the opinion that the Scriptures make 
Baptism an indispensable prerequisite to the Lord's 
Supper.* 

Amid this universal agreement, with reference to 
the principle of communion, there could have been 
no diversity in practice, had all Christians concurred, 
to the same extent, in regard to the ordinance of 
baptism. It is at this point that they diverge. 
Had there remained one baptism, as well as one 
Lord, and one faith, there would have been but one 
communion. From this point of view, it is easy for 
a candid mind to understand the real nature of the 
difference between Baptists and other denominations, 
with reference to the Lord's table. The former 
hold that nothing but the immersion of a believer is 
baptism ; but as they maintain, in common with 
other denominations, that baptism must precede 
communion, they cannot receive any one who has 
not been immersed. It is perfectly clear, therefore, 
that the only question at issue between them and 
the others, is as to what constitutes baptism. To 
represent the matter otherwise, for the purpose of 
arraying prejudices against them, and enlisting the 
passions where reason fails, is ungenerous as well as 

* Booth, Vindic. Bap. Sec. 1. Remington, Def. of Re 
stricted Communion. King, Prim. Ch P. II. ch. vi. 



CHURCH POLITY. 211 

unfair. Yet upon no point have the Baptists been 
so frequently assailed or so generally misrepresented. 
To receive unimmersed persons to their communion, 
would amount not only to a virtual renunciation of 
their own views of baptism, but an abandonment of 
the fundamental law of communion, in the churches 
of Christ in general. And yet, because they refuse 
to do this, the cry of bigotry is raised against them. 
It would be well for those who are disposed to join in 
this cry, to consider what respect they could have 
for persons who would thus betray, at once, their 
own principles and the common principles of the 
Christian world.* 

* For a more full discussion of this topic, the reader is 
referred to Dr. Howe I's work on Communion. Phila., A. 
B. P. Society. 1847 



CHAPTER XVI. 

RELATION OP CHURCHES TO EACH OTHER. 

Although the churches of Jesus Christ are inde- 
pendent bodies, yet as they are constituted on the 
same principles, acknowledging one Lord, one faith, 
one baptism, and aim at the same great end, the 
spread of the Redeemer's kingdom, it is their duty 
to maintain friendly intercourse and fellowship with 
each other, for the promotion of their mutual inte- 
rests and their common welfare. In visible or- 
ganization they are many ; but in spirit, in doctrine, 
in design, they are one.^ 

This friendly relation is evinced by admitting one 
another's members to transient communion, dismiss- 
ing and receiving members to and from each other, 
and by affording assistance and giving advice in cases 
of difficulty or need. One church may send spiritual 
teachers to another. Such were sent by the church 
in Jerusalem to the church in Antioch.f They may 
supply each other's temporal necessities. J In cases 

*1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:5; 6: 18; Jno. 17: 20—26; 
Rom. 16 : 1, 2 ; 3 Jno. 8—10 ; Acts 15. 

t Acts 11 : 22—27 ; 15 : 22—27 ; 18 : 27 ; Eph. 6 : 21 ; 1 
Cor. 16 : 15—18. 

J 1 Cor. 16 : 1— 3 ; 2 Cor. 8 : 1—4, 13—24 ; 9 : 1—15 ; Rom. 
15 : 26. 



CHURCH POLITY. 213 

of perplexity menacing their peace or purity, they 
may avail themselves of the services of their bre- 
thren, by seeking the advice of presbyteries or coun- 
cils, composed of the pastors and delegated members 
of sister churches. '' A council has no power what- 
ever but to examine, and give its opinion and advice. 
It can exercise no control. Its office is to give 
light, not to pronounce decrees." * The decision 
of the case, whatever it may be, must rest upon the 
final determination of the church. 

Some of the objects contemplated in the institu- 
tion of Christian churches, can be best secured by 
their cooperation ; as the general spread of the gos- 
pel, the gathering of new churches, the education 
of the ministry, and the circulation of the Scriptures, 
and other religious books. This principle was re- 
cognized by the apostles, and the churches which 
they founded. The church in Antioch sent forth 
Paul and Barnabas on a missionary excursion, and 
other churches cordially aided in their support. f 
To accomplish these objects, churches, at the pre- 
sent day, unite in Associations, and through them, 
in a general Convention. 

An association consists of delegates or messengers 
from different particular churches. As the union of 
the members of a particular church is founded on 

* Bacon's Manual, p. 145. 

t Acts 13 : 2, 3; 2 Cor. 11 : 8, 12 : 13, 18; Phil. 6 : 10-18. 



214 CHURCH POLITY. 

uniformity of faith and practice, so the union of 
churches in a general body rests upon the same 
principles. Thus constituted, an association is not 
armed with coercive powers. Its authority is repre- 
sentative, executive, advisory. To execute the 
wishes of the churches, in reference to the objects 
for which it was organized, and to offer its advice, 
in cases which involve the common interest of the 
confederation, are all that it may lawfully do. 
Should any of the churches included in the associa- 
tion depart from the principles of the union, by em- 
bracing error, abusing its power over its members, 
or neglecting attendance on the meetings of the asso- 
ciation, it is the right and duty of this body to re- 
monstrate, to advise, and if the church proves in- 
corrigible, to withdraw fellowship from it; **for if 
the agreement of several distinct churches in sound 
doctrine and regular practice, be the binding motive, 
ground, foundation, or basis of their confederation, 
then it must naturally follow, that a defection in 
doctrine or practice, in any church in that confeder- 
ation, or any part in any such church, is ground 
suiBicient for an association to withdraw from such a 
church or party so deviating or making defection, 
and exclude such from them in formal manner, and 
to advertise all the churches in their confederation 
thereof, in order that all the churches in confedera- 
tion may withdraw from such in all acts of church 



CHUflCH POLITY. 215 

communion, to the end that they may be ashamed, 
and that all the churches may discountenance such, 
and bear testimony against the defection. Such 
withdrawing from a defective or disorderly church, 
is such as arises from voluntary confederation afore- 
said, and not only from the general duty that is 
incumbent upon all orthodox persons and churches 
to do, where no such confederation is entered into, 
as 2 Cor. 16 : 16, 17 ; and although an association 
ought not to assume a power to excommunicate, or 
deliver a disorderly or defective church to Satan (as 
some about us claim) , yet it is a power sufficient to 
exclude the delegates of a disorderly or defective 
church from an association, and to refuse their pres- 
ence at their consultations, and advise all the church- 
es in confederation to do so too." * 

The benefits arising from an association of church- 
es are many. ** In general, it will tend to maintain 
the truth, order, and discipline of the gospel. 1. 
By it the churches may have such doubts as arise 
amongst them cleared, which will prevent disputes. 
Acts 15 : 28, 29. 2. They will be furnished with 
salutary counsel. Prov. 11 : 14. 3. Those 
churches which have no ministers may obtain occa- 
sional supplies. Cant. 8:8. 4. The churches 
will be more closely united in promoting the cause 

* Power and Duty of an Association, by Kev. B. Griffith, 
adopted by the Philadelphia and Charleston Associations. 



216 CHURCH POLITY. 

and interest of Christ. 5. A member who is 
aggrieved through partiality, or any other wrongs 
received from the church, may have an opportunity 
of applying for direction. 6. A godly and sound 
ministry will be encouraged, while a ministry that is 
unsound and ungodly will be discountenanced. 7. 
There will be a reciprocal communication of their 
gifts. Phil. 4 : 15. 8. Ministers may alternately 
be sent out to preach the gospel to those who are 
destitute. Gal. 2:9. 9. A large party may 
draw off from the church, by means of an intruding 
minister, or otherwise, and the aggrieved may have 
no way of obtaining redress but from the association. 
10. A church may become heretical, with which 
its godly members can no longer communicate ; yet 
can obtain no relief but by the association. 11. 
Contentions may arise betwixt churches, which the 
association is most likely to remove. 12. The 
churches may have candidates for the ministry pro- 
perly tried by the association." * 

Conventions are composed of delegates from asso- 
ciations, churches, and other religious bodies. The 

* Summary of Church Discipline, ch. vi. published by D. 
Sheppard, in the volume before referred to. Charleston, 
1831. On this subject see, also, A Treatise on Church 
Discipline, in the same volume, ch. x., xi. Griffith's Essay, 
pp. 231 — 237. Baptist Confession of Faith, ch. xxvii., § 14, 
15. Crowell's Manual, pp. 86, 266. Punchard on Congre- 
gationalism, pp. 103, 119. Bacon's Manual, ch. vii. Gran- 
tham's Christianismus Primitivus, B. II. ch, x. 



CHUIICH POLITY. 217 

general principles upon which they are founded, 
and the uses which they subserve^ are the same as 
those which obtain in the organization of associations. 
In this country, a convention is held annually in 
each of the States, and a general convention is 
held triennially, consisting of delegates from many 
States. The latter is an organization for missionary 
purposes alone, contemplating the introduction of 
the gospel into destitute regions, and its diffusion 
throughout the world. 

Such is the scriptural relation of churches to each 
other ; such are the confederations which are permit- 
ted and sanctioned by the word and the spirit of Christ ; 
and of such alone have we any record in the early 
annals of Christianity. All other confederations, 
not deriving their powers from the consent of the 
churches, and claiming a divine right of jurisdiction 
over them, are the growth of later and corrupt 
times. The history of their origin, development, 
and fearfal ascendency, is replete with warning and 
admonition.* 

* Htillmann Kirchenverfassung, § 31 — So. Coleman's 
Christ. Antiq. pp. 356—367. Prim. Ch. chap. viii. King's 
Prim. Ch. P. I. chap. viii. Mosheim (Ed. Murdock), I. pp. 
86, 142-4. Waddington, Eccl. Hist. p. 44. Gieseler, I. pp. 
96, 102, 152. 

19 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ADVANTAGES OF SCRIPTURAL CHURCH POLITY. 

Before proceeding to enumerate the advantages 
of the divine plan of ecclesiastical organization and 
government, I shall present a condensed summary 
of the principles which have been established in the 
foregoing investigations. The Scriptures teach that 
the Christian Church — the Holy Church Catholic 
— is the spiritual body of the Redeemer, and is 
composed of those, in every age of the world, who 
are spiritually renewed, and vitally allied to their 
Great Head. Some have already ascended to 
heaven, others are serving him upon earth, and an 
innumerable multitude are yet to be bom. The 
number will be complete when they are assembled 
at the judgment seat of Christ. This church uni- 
versal has its earthly representative, or antitype, in 
a particular visible church. Each particular church 
is a local society, composed of persons who have 
been baptized upon a credible profession of faith in 
the Son of God, and have solemnly covenanted to 
walk together in the spirit of the Gospel, acknowl- 
edging Christ as their Lord, and his word as their 
infallible guide. Upon such a church, Christ has 



CHURCH POLITY. 219 

conferred the prerogative of self-government, under 
his laws. It is the right and duty of a church to 
interpret these laws for itself, and to declare what it 
considers the will of Christ to be, with reference to 
doctrines, ordinances, moral duties, the terms of 
communion, and church order, and to govern all its 
members accordingly ; to receive persons to fellow- 
ship and to expel offenders ; and to choose its own 
officers. In the execution of the laws of Christ, it 
is responsible solely to Him. Churches are therefore 
independent of each other, so far as coercive inter- 
ference is concerned ; yet they sustain an intimate 
relationship ; are bound to promote, in all lawful 
ways, each other's welfare ; and to unite their efforts 
in the general advancement of the Redeemer's king- 
dom. A church when fally organized is furnished 
with two classes of officers, one of them having spe- 
cial charge of its spiritual interests, the other, of its 
temporal or secular concerns. In these classes, 
there is no distinction in grade. All bishops are 
of equal rank, and so are all deacons. 

Such is the scriptural church polity, as adopted 
by Baptist churches, in opposition to all other exist- 
ing systems. It differs from all sorts of prelacy, 
Roman, Oriental, Episcopal, and Wesley an, by the 
principle, that all the servants of Christ in the work 
of the gospel are of equal rank. It is distinguished 
from Episcopacy and Presbyterianism, by the princi- 



220 CHURCH POLITY. 

plo that the only organized church is a particular 
church, a society of believers, who statedly meet in 
one place, for the transaction of its business. It, 
therefore, excludes every such thing as a provincial 
or national church, the aggregation of churches, and 
the centralization or consolidation of church power. 
It is distino-uished from all churches established bv 
law, by asking no aid from the civil ruler, and 
denying to him all right to interfere with its con- 
cerns. It differs from these systems by the princi- 
ple that all church power resides in the church, and 
not in its officers ; and resides in each church 
directly and originally by virtue of the voluntary 
compact of its members, under its divine charter. 
In fine, it is distinguished from all other systems by 
the principle that every individual is personally 
responsible for his religious acts and exercises, that 
no infant is born a member of the church, nor can 
be made such by any ecclesiastical rite, personal 
piety being insisted on as an indispensable qualifica- 
tion for membership. 

In our estimate of the advantages of scriptural 
church polity, it is necessary to distinguish between 
the legitimate tendencies of the system and its 
actual results. As the gospel contemplates the 
perfect holiness of its possessors, but, in consequence 
of the deep-seated depravity of the human heart, 
never accomplishes it in the present life, so the 



CHURCH POLITY. 221 

direct tendencies of the divine plan of church order 
are retarded and counterworked by other influences, 
which prevent their complete development, in the 
actual condition of the churches. An approximation 
to the high standard of the Scriptures is all that can 
reasonably be expected.* 

I. The scriptural church polity effects an entire 
separation between the church and the world, the 
regenerate and the unregenerate. By its requisition 
of personal piety in all who approach its ordinances 
and enjoy its special privileges, it gives to the 
household of faith a distinctive character, and makes 
it a witness for God, in the midst of a world lying 
in wickedness. Had the true principles of church 
polity been universally recognized, no ecclesiastical 
establishments would ever have existed, empowered 
by the civil magistrate to subjugate the conscience, 
and employing pains and penalties to enforce the 
reception of its dogmas. The spiritual despotism 
of pampered hierarchies would have been unknown, 

* This obvious principle furnishes a satisfactory reply to 
all such special pleading as is found in Marshall's Notes on 
Episcopacy, chapter Y. It might be easily sho^vn that the 
Chui'ch of England, of which this writer is so strenuous an 
advocate, is, in the language of one of her own sons, *' the 
child of regal and aristocratical selfishness and unprinci- 
pled tyranny, and bears and has ever borne the marks of 
her birth." Dr. Arnold. Life and Correspondence, p. 478. 
Appleton & Co., New York, 

19* 



222 CHURCH POLITY. 

and the gospel would have been left free to achieve 
its triumphs by its own sublime and incomparable 
power. Christ's kingdom is not of this world. His 
churches ask nothing of the civil ruler but what 
every citizen, Jew or Gentile, may lawfully claim — 
protection in the just exercise of their rights and 
privileges. They have no right to invoke the aid of 
government to sustain the distinctive institutions, 
rites, or doctrines of Christianity. Legal compulsion, 
in reference to the affairs of the soul, besides being 
absurd, is an impious invasion of the supremacy of 
the Most High, and the worst form which human 
tyranny can assume.* 

II. Another advantage of the scriptural form 
of church government is, that it promotes general 
intelligence among the members of the church. 

Where the government of a church is entrusted 
to one, or to a select portion of its members, the 
rest feel relieved of all responsibility; but where 
all are interested, and are solemnly charged with 
the management of its concerns, all must appreciate 
their obligation to study the word of Grod, devoutly 
and carefully, that they may become familiar with 
the great principles by which they are to be guided. 
The consciousness of occupying so solemn and 
dignified a position, cannot but exert the happiest 

* Haldane, Social Worship, chap. XIV. 



CHURCH POLITY. 223 

influence on the mind. When it is remembered by 
the servant of the Lord Jesus, that it is his high 
privilege to share, directly, in the reception of 
members into the church, the exercise of discipline, 
the choice of officers, and everything else that 
affects the prosperity of the Redeemer's kingdom, 
he has the strongest possible inducement to prepare 
himself for the proper performance of his duties. 
This is one of the most valuable peculiarities of 
our polity. Other forms may be expected to secure 
these advantages only in proportion as they approach 
the scriptural standard. 

III. Scriptural church polity is best fitted to 
maintain the purity of the churches. 

It is readily granted that the freedom of our gov- 
ernment — the right of the people to choose their 
own pastors, and in every other respect to manage 
their own ecclesiastical affairs, — demands an ao-o-re- 
gate of wisdom and piety greater than is needed 
under other forms. But it must be remembered 
that the scriptural church polity involves a scriptural 
constituency. The members of a church become 
such, only after an entire moral transformation. 
They profess to have been born again, taught by the 
Spirit of God, and brought into subjection to his 
will. Grenuine piety in the mass of the members 
constitutes the surest pledge of purity, and the 
mo,st effectual rampart against false doctrine, heresy, 



224 CHURCH POLITY. 

and general corruption. There is much less danger 
that the majority of the church will become unsound, 
than that a few men, claiming to be their authorita- 
tive guides, will swerve from the faith. 

IV. It best secures the rights of individual 
members. 

Should a member be aggrieved by any of his 
brethren, whether private or official, he may apply 
for redress to the church. He is not subject to the 
control, nor liable to suffer from the caprice, of any 
irresponsible power. Trial by jury is justly regard- 
ed as the palladium of personal rights. In a 
Christian church, a member, when arraigned upon 
any charge, enjoys the benefit of trial by a jury of 
his peers, composed of all his fellow-members. 
There is, therefore, every reason to expect an impar- 
tial verdict. 

y. Another advantage of the scriptural polity 
is found in the motives which it suggests to dili- 
gence, activity, and fidelity in the ministry. 

The direct accountability of rulers to the 
people is a principle of vast importance, and its 
beneficial influence is clearly recognized in the best 
forms of civil government. An officer of the church 
is amenable to his brethren for the proper discharge 
of the duties of his station. Should he become 
negligent, indolent, heretical, or corrupt, he may be 
deposed. He cannot continue, as under some other 



CHURCH POLITY. 225 

systems, to be an incubus to the church, and a scan- 
dal to the cause of Christ. 

VI. Scriptural church polity is favorable to 
human progress, — to the establishment of free 
institutions. 

It recognizes distinctly the democratic principle, 
that the people are the source of power — the foun- 
tain of all legitimate authority — while, at the same 
time, it guards against its abuses, by the limitations 
of a written constitution. The church does not 
interfere with the state, it enjoins obedience to 
rulers, and may exist under any form of civil 
government ; but it cannot Tdc denied that the 
spirit which pervades its polity is eminently con- 
ducive to the political welfare of mankind, and the 
general advancement of free principles. A people 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of our ecclesiasti- 
cal organization, republicans in church as well as 
state, will be faithful guardians of the public weal, 
and every church will prove a citadel of defence 
against tyranny. The intimate relation which 
subsists between ecclesiastical and civil freedom is 
too often overlooked. They are twin sisters, and 
live or die together. He who surrenders his relig- 
ious rights to the clergy, or commits the keeping of 
his conscience to them, and submits to be ruled by 
them, whether in councils or conferences, renounces 
liis Christian birth-right, and, as he has become the 



226 CHURCH POLITY. 

voluntary slave of a priest, he may, at any time, be 
made the vassal of a tyrant.* 

VII. Another striking feature of the system 
which I have delineated from the word of God, 
and the last that I shall mention, is its simplicity. 

It presents no imposing visible organization, 
recognizes no priesthood clothed with mysterious 
powers ; symbolizes with none of the superstitions 
of the world, '' gay religions, full of pomp and 
gold." The principles of church polity are level 
to the comprehension of all who are qualified for 
membership in a church. There are no wheels 
within wheels, inferior and superior courts of 
judicature, no intricate machinery, nothing in the 
government of a church which a plain man may 
not understand. Its practicability, under any cir- 
cumstances, is one of its best recommendations.! 

* "I am convinced," says Dr. Arnold, *' that the whole 
mischief of the great anti-christian apostacy has for its 
root the tenet of a priestly government transmitted by a 
mystical succession from the apostles." Life, p. 320. 
Again, " That the church system, or rather the priest sys- 
tem, is not to be found in the Scriptures, is as certain as 
that the worship of Jupiter is not the doctrine of the 
gospel." p. 409. 

t The limits to which I proposed to confine myself, in 
this chapter, permitted nothing beyond a cursory glance at 
some of the advantages of the revealed polity. For a more 
extensive view of the subject, the reader is referred to Pun- 
chard on Congregationalism, Part V. Haldane's Social 
Worship, chap. XIII. Christian Review, May, 1846. 



CHUKCH POLITY. 227 

The following anecdote was communicated to the Chris- 
tian Watchman several years ago, by the Rev. Dr. Fishback, 
of Lexington, Ky. 

** Mr. Editor. — The following circumstance which occurr- 
ed in the state of Virginia, relative to Mr. Jefferson, was 
detailed to me by Elder Andrew Tribble, about six years 
ago, who since died when ninety-two or three -years old. 
The facts may interest some of your readers. Andrew Trib- 
ble was the pastor of a small Baptist church, which held its 
monthly meetings at a short distance from Mr. Jefferson's 
house, eight or ten years before the American revolution. 
Mr. Jefferson attended the meetings of the church for 
several months in succession, and after one of them, asked 
Elder Tribble to go home and dine with him, with which he 
complied. 

"Mr. Tribble asked Mr. Jefferson how he was pleased 
with their church government. Mr. Jefferson replied, that 
it had struck him with great force, and had interested him 
much ; that he considered it the only form of pure democ- 
racy that then existed in the world, and had concluded that 
it would be the best plan of government for the American 
colonies. This was several years before the Declaration of 
Independence, To what extent this practical exhibition of 
religious liberty and equality operated on Mr. Jefferson's 
mind, in forming his views and principles of religious and 
civil freedom, which were so ably exhibited, I will not say." 



CHAPTER X VIII. 

CORRUPTION OF SCRIPTURAL CHURCH POLITY, 

The simple and beautiful system of ecclesiastical 
polity which was established by the inspired found- 
ers of the primitive churches, retained only for a 
brief period its original perfection and symmetry. 
The innovations and corruptions which menaced it 
were distinctly foreseen by the apostles themselves. 
Paul said to the elders of the church of Ephesus, 
'' I know this, that after my departing shall grievous 
wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock." * 
John encountered the opposition of one of these 
disturbers of the peace, in the person of Diotrephes, 
who was so inflamed with the passion for preemi- 
nence that he rejected the authority of the apostle 
himself, t Thus we find the germs of corruption 
existing even in the primitive churches. To antici- 
pate their development and counteract their insidious 
influence, the apostles lifted their voices in solemn 
warning and remonstrance. Notwithstanding this, 
the churches began to decline from the apostohc 
order before the close of the second century, and 

* Acts 20 : 29. 

t 3 Jno. 9 ; cf. Clem. Ep. ad Cor. § 14. 



CHURCH POLITY. 229 

even within the lifetime of some who had been con- 
temporary with the inspired teachers. The causes 
and the manner of this transition will now be briefly 
indicated. While the early corruptions of church 
polity are to be ascribed mainly to the pride and 
ambition of the clergy, it must be confessed that 
other causes contributed to these deplorable results. 

I. The excellences by which the primitive pas- 
tors were distinguished, proved one of the earliest 
occasions of corruption to the churches. 

The position of a Christian pastor, in those days, 
was one of great peril. In all persecutions for the 
truth's sake, the storm spent its fury chiefly upon 
him ; and the steadfastness with which he endured 
its violence, entitled him to the love and confidence 
of his flock. To such men, who were ready to lay 
down their lives for the cause of Christ, the churches 
naturally supposed that they might entrust their 
dearest rights. Their members, scattered by perse- 
cution, and prevented from meeting together for the 
management of their ecclesiastical aflfairs, were 
induced by the necessity of the case to commit 
them to the hands of their pastors, and thus an un- 
scriptural authority was given to religious teachers. 
This authority was, doubtless, at first faithfully ex- 
ercised, and held as a boon, not as a right ; but, in 
the course of time, the origin and nature of the 
trust were overlooked, and their ambitious succes- 
20 



230 CHURCH POLITY. 

sors claimed a divine right to dictate to the churches 
and control their movements. The tendency of 
power to pass from the many to the few, is strong 
under any circumstances ; hut it is particularly so, 
when the transfer is prompted by reverence for 
elevated piety, and gratitude for distinguished ser- 
vices. This was the case with the early churches. 
The lamentable consequences of their defection 
should prove a warning to all other churches, and 
impress them with the importance of guarding their 
rights against the aggression of even the most wise 
and pious men. Clerical despotism reaches its im- 
perial elevation by slow and almost imperceptible 
advances ; it is the first step that is the most dan- 
gerous. 

The sentiment of respect for superior excellence, 
to which I have adverted, led, also, to a change in 
the relations of the ministers among themselves. 
** After the death of the apostles and the pupils of 
the apostles, to whom the general direction of the 
churches had always been conceded, some one 
amongst the presbyters of each church was suffered 
gradually to take the lead in its affairs. In the 
same irregular way the title of bishop was appro- 
priated to this first presbyter." * 

II. Another cause of the corruption of the 
apostolic church polity is found in the ascendency 

* Gieseler, Ch. Hist. 1, § 2. Httllmann, S. 20. 



CHURCH POLITY. 331 

of the churches in the cities over those in the country. 

The gospel was first preached in large cities such 
as Jerusalem, Corinth, and Eome ; churches were 
founded in them, and thence, as from centres of in- 
fluence, Christianity was extended in the surround- 
ing regions. Visitants to the city were converted, 
and connected with the metropolitan church ; and, 
in process of time, when their number became 
sufficiently large, they were constituted into church- 
es in the country. These churches naturally looked 
to the mother church for aid and counsel, received 
their first pastors from it, and were in constant in- 
tercourse with it. They were regarded as branches 
of the metropolitan church. ' ' In this connection 
and coalition, between the original church and the 
smaller ones that sprang up around it, began that 
change in the original organization of the apostolical 
churches which gave rise to the Episcopal system, 
and which in the end totally subverted the primitive 
simplicity and freedom in which the churches were 
at first founded." * 

When the elders of the city churches came to 
have a president, or chief presbyter, charged with 
the general supervision of its affairs, his jurisdiction 
was extended over the country churches connected 
with it ; and in this way diocesan episcopacy was 

* Coleman, Prim. Ch. p. 249. Gieseler, I, p. 103. HttU- 
mann, S. 22, 30. 



2S2 CHURCH POLITY. 

introduced. Had the independence of the rural 
churches been maintained, this defection from prim- 
itive episcopacy could never have occurred. 

III. The original polity of the churches was cor- 
rupted by the introduction of the doctrine that the 
ministers of the Christian church were the successors 
of the Jewish priesthood. 

If this notion were true, of course the Christian 
ministry and the Jewish priesthood must be similar 
in rank and station. The bishop corresponded to 
the High Priest, the presbyters or elders to the 
priests, and the deacons to the Levites. They 
were no longer incumbents in oflSce at the pleasure 
of the people, and dependent upon them, but were 
divinely appointed to instruct and rule them. 
** When once the idea of a Mosaic priesthood had 
been adopted in the Christian church, the clergy 
soon began to assume a superiority over the laity. 
The customary form of consecration was now sup- 
posed to have a certain mystic influence, and hence- 
forth they stand in the position of persons appointed 
by Grod to be the medium of communication between 
him and the Christian world." * This unscriptural 
and impious dogma was the source of that ghostly 
tyranny which presumed to extend its empire over 
heaven and hell, opening or shutting their gates at 
pleasure, and by its subsequent ascendency kept the 

* Gieseler, I, p. 156. Mttnscher, Handbuch, iii. S, lo. 



CHURCH POLITY. 533 

Christian world for centuries in a worse than 
Egyptian bondage.* 

Another effect of this doctrine was the claim on 
the part of the clergy to tithes for their support. 
Moreover, they argued that '' if the ministration of 
condemnation be glory, much more doth the minis- 
tration of righteousness exceed in glory" — and 
therefore claimed superior contributions in tithes and 
offerings to Christian ministers. '* And what is 
still more extraordinary, by such wretched reasoning 
the bulk of mankind were convinced." f 

IV. The institution of, provincial synods, and af- 
terwards of general councils, contributed its influence 
to the subversion of the primitive polity of the 
churches. 

The first of these assemblies was held against the 
Montanists. % They were composed originally of 
the representatives of independent churches, select- 
ed for the purpose of deliberating upon matters 
which affected their common interests. From these 
synods the laity was excluded ; at least there exists 
no evidence to prove that any but the clergy took 
part in their deliberations. They were advisory 

* Some Protestant ministers in this country, arrayed in 
gown or surplice, gravely pretend to these awful preroga- 
tives. Risum teneatis, amici ? 

t Campbell, Lee. Eccl. Hist. X, P. T. Gibbon's Rome, 
I. p. 276. 

+ A. D. 160, 170. Euseb. V. 16. Gieseler, 1, p. 102. 
20* 



234 CHURCH POLITY. 

bodies, and if their decisions assumed the form of 
laws, it was rather by common consent than as 
imperative enactments. It was not long, however, 
before they presumed to claim the right of giving 
authoritative laws to the churches. Their original 
character, as deliberative and advisory assemblies, 
was exchanged for one of higher pretensions, 
claiming legislative and judicial authority, and thus 
invading the independence of the churches. 

These synods needed a moderator ; and as they 
were usually held in the capital of the province, the 
presiding officer of the city church was commonly 
chosen. The position, which was at first yielded to 
him from a spirit of courtesy, was afterward claimed 
as an official right. The institution of these assem- 
blies thus promoted at once the aggrandizement of 
the clergy in general, and the exaltation of one in 
each province to a position of vast and irresponsible 
power. '*The practical effect of these councils, 
from the beginning, was to give increasing consider- 
ation and influence to the clergy, which continually 
increased, until it finally ended in the full establish- 
ment of the ecclesiastical hierarchy." * 

The history of these ecclesiastical assemblies evin- 
ces that it is not without reason that the movements 

* Coleman, , Chr. Antiq. p. 364. Prim. Ch. chap. viii. 
Waddington, Ch. Hist. pp. 43 — 45. Gibbon, Rome, I. p. 
274. Gieseler, I, § 66. 



CHURCH POLIT?. 235 

of similar bodies, at the present day, are watched 
with jealous solicitude. Associations and conven- 
tions ought to be restricted within their appropriate 
limits, as advisory and executive bodies. Any at- 
tempt on their part to invade the independence of 
the churches, by controlling their faith or practice, 
or assuming the supervision of matters which have 
not been entrusted to them, should be promptly and 
steadfastly resisted. 

V. The doctrine of a visible church catholic may 
be enumerated among the causes which subverted 
the primitive ecclesiastical order. 

This notion, which was early developed, necessa- 
rily blended the churches together under a uniform 
organization, which required a visible head, and 
led directly to the establishment of the papacy. 
To maintain uniformity, the central representative 
of sovereignty must be clothed with unlimited power 
over every portion of the vast confederation.* That 
this doctrine is a misconception of the notion of 
Christian unity, and is unsupported by the word of 
God, has already been shown. t 

* Gieseler, I, §§ 49, 66, 82. Coleman, Prim. Ch. p. 270. 

t " There is," says Dr. Arnold, " a societas generis huma- 
ni, and a societas hominum Christianorum, but there is not 
one respuhlica or civitas of either, but a great many. The 
Roman Catholics say there is but one respuhlica^ and there- 
fore, with perfect consistency, they say that there must be 
one central government." — Life, p 166. 



236 CHlJRCH POLITY. 

VI. The introduction of infant baptism was an- 
other cause of the corruption of church polity. 

The grounds upon which this rite was introduced, 
by identifying it with regeneration, and making it 
essential to salvation, placed it in direct antagonism 
to the genius of Christianity. Besides imparting 
increased potency to the cause of corruption, which 
was already in existence, it exercised a direct and 
powerful influence upon the churches, and, in the 
end, effected an entire revolution in their polity. 
After its introduction, the churches were no longer 
composed of believers who had been baptised upon 
profession of their faith in the Redeemer ; the dis- 
tinction between real and nominal Christianity was 
obliterated : forms and ceremonies usurped the place 
of vital godliness ; Christianity itself was virtually 
repealed ; and the pure and benign system of Jesus 
of Nazareth degenerated into a profane and cruel 
superstition. 



ADDENDA. 

[The following paragraphs, which ought to have 
been inserted at the close of Chap. VII. , were acci- 
dentally omitted :] 

If it be the duty of each church, as a separate 
and independent body, to bear its unequivocal tes- 
timony to the truth, it is equally so when it is 
united with others. A union of churches upon 
grounds that permit the rejection of principles 
which each is separately pledged to sustain, is an 
absurdity so gross and palpable, that it is surpris- 
ing it should find any advocates. It has indeed 
been said that ''uniformity is not to be secured 
and preserved by confederacies of churches, confes- 
sions of faith, or written codes or formularies 
framed by man, as bonds of union for the churches 
of Christ. " * To this it may be replied, that while 
it is true that the recognition of a^ common confes- 
sion does not always secure real uniformity, and 
this will always be the case, so long as deceivers 
exist who are base enough to profess what they do 
not believe, yet this method affords the nearest ap- 

* Gospel Developed, By W. B. Johnson. D. D. p. 200. 



238 CHURCH POLITY. 

proximation which can be made to so desirable a 
result. Real uniformity can exist only among 
those who ' ' all speak the same thing, and are per- 
fectly joined together in the same mind and in the 
same judgment." 1 Cor. 1 : 10. A union of contra- 
dictions is an impossibility. Agreement in senti- 
ment is the bond of Christian union. *'I have 
heard a great deal," says the judicious Fuller, " of 
union without sentiment ; but I can neither feel nor 
perceive any such thing, either in myself or others. 
All the union that I can feel or perceive arises 
from a similarity of views and pursuits." All 
other grounds of union are impracticable and worth- 
less, and all the hopes of ecclesiastical prosperity or 
denominational enlargement which are based upon 
them will prove deceptive in the end. '' Christian 
enlargement is not accomplished by extending our 
connections, but by confining them to persons with 
whom we can have fellowship, communion, concord, 
and a mutual participation of spiritual interests "* 

* Fuller*s Works, II. pp. 657, 659. Bacon's Manual, 
App. A. For a fiyrther vindication of written articles of 
faith, the reader is referred to Crowell's Ch. Mem. 
Manual, pp. 71, 118, and especially to the able essays 
of Andrew Fuller, on creeds and subscriptions, and 
similar topics. Works, II., p. 629, seq. In a work entitled 
" Social Religion Exemplified, by Rev. M. Maurice," p. 
64, I find the following brief statement of the ends sub- 
served by a confession of faith : — 



CHURCH POLITY. 239 

If the views wliich have now been presented 
witli reference to the rights and powers of Christian 
churches be correct, they are placed in a position of 
great eminence and responsibility. All the author- 
ity which Chiist has not reserved to himself, he has 
delegated to them. They are the guardians of his 
cause upon the earth. To them he has committed 
a solemn and responsible trust. It is their impera- 
tive duty to retain it in their own hands, and dis- 
charge the duties involved in it, with a zeal and fi- 

" Since the Bible is allowed to be tlie only rule of faith, 
and practice, and a very sufficient one, what need was there 
of a confession of faith and a church covenant ? It is re- 
plied: 1. The apostolic churches had something similar, 
called the principles of the oracles of God, and the form of 
sound words. 2. Persons may in general subscribe to the 
Bible, who at the same time do not believe its contents, as 
the Sadducees of old respecting the five books of Moses, 
with all ancient and modern heretics. 3. A collection of 
the first principles of the oracles of God, is oi great tLse, 
that in their light, as truths of the greatest importance, 
other things that offer themselves may be tried. 4. This is 
no imposition, because all men have an equal right to col- 
lect from scripture what they apprehend to be the princi- 
ples of faith. 5. An explicit declaration of our principles 
is honest and generous. 6. Fundamental principles, col- 
lected into one consistent view, appear with stronger evi- 
dence, and make deeper impressions. A constellation 
gives a clearer light than dispersed stars. 7. The various 
heresies in the world make it necessary there should be 
confessions of faith, that they which are approved may be 
made manifest.'' 



240 CHURCH POLITY. 

delity proportionate to the honors and privileges it 
confers. The fact itself is a noble and affecting ap- 
peal to their best sentiments, and it should be the 
aim of the churches to vindicate the wisdom of the 
Redeemer in their organization, by proving that 
the trust has not been bestowed in vain. 



NOTICES BY THE PRESS, OF THE FIRST 
EDITION. 



The following are some of the notices of the first edition : — 
" The Kingdom of Christ, by Key. J. L. Keynolds, Prof, of Bib. Lit. 
in Mercer University, Ga., constitutes the third number of the Period- 
ical Library. The subject is well treated by the author. We know 
of no work on the nature and organization of the church better 
suited to general circulation. It should be in the hands of every 
Baptist, as containing a brief, but clear and able defence of the doc- 
trine we hold concerning the constitution of the Church of Christ." 
— South Western Baptist Chronicle. 

" Prof. Keynolds shows in this little work, that he has bestowed 
much thought upon the subject. He has with great clearness and 
force exhibited the Polity of the New Testament, and traced the 
gradual departure from it in the Churches which succeeded those 
planted by the Apostles." — Western Baptist Review. 

" The Kingdom of Christ. An exceedingly able little work bear- 
ing the above title, has just been received from the publisher. It is 
an able treatise on the great question respecting Church Polity. It 
defends the sentiments of the Baptists with much power, and we 
hope the day is not far distant when the distinguished author will be 
permitted to present the larger volume to the public." — Chrystal 
Fount. 

" The style of the work of Prof. Reynolds is very handsome ; it 
exhibits much learning and research ; and we believe every position 
of the writer meets our hearty concurrence. We object only to its 
brevity. It seems to be the abridgment of a larger design. Bro. R. 
will, we trust, soon write out his views on the whole subject, and 
place them before the public in a more perfect form. Meantime we 
should be glad to see this work in the hands of all our friends. It 
is the cheapest and best work of the kind in the nation." — Dr. How- 
ell^ of Tenn. Baptist. 

21 



" The subject of this work has received a large share of attention 
from many distinguished men during the last year or two, but not 
more than it has deserved. It is important, especially in the Churches 
that adopt the form of Church government which Baptists have 
always advocated. Bro. Reynolds has done much service in this 
cause. The chapter on Church Membership is worth more than the 
price of the book. Buy and read it." — Mississippi Baptist. 



A VALUABLE WORK. 

JUST published, by HARROLD & MURRAY, the SCRIPTURE 
CATECHISM, suitable for Bible Classes, Sabbath Schools, Families, 
but especially for the instruction of Servants, prepared by Rev. 
Robert Ryland, President of the Richmond College, and Pastor of th« 
first African Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, pp. 148. 18mo. 

The work is divided into 52 lessons, or one for each week, contain- 
ing the following subjects : — A Divne Revelation, God a Spirit ever 
present, God all powerful, God eternal, God unchangeable, The 
Truth and Justice of God, The Holiness of God, The Unity of God ; 
God the Father, Son and Spirit ; God the Creator, the Providence of 
God, Angels, Satan, Man, The Fall of Man, His Depravity, The Law, 
The Saviour, Proofs, Deity of Christ, Humanity do., The Death and 
Atonement do.. The Resurruction of do.. The Exaltation of do. Re- 
pentance, Faith, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, Perseverance, 
The Holy Spirit, The Divine Purposes, Death, The Resurrection, The 
Judgment, Heaven, Hell, The Church, The Ministry, The Deacons, 
Baptism, The Lord's Supper, Church Discipline, Deportment, Relative 
Duties, Parents and Children, Masters and Servants, Civil Authorities, 
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The work has met with very flattering reception by all who have 
examined it. We have room for only two extracts. 

From Rev. Richard Fuller, D.D., of Baltimore. 
" It gives me pleasure to recommend such an excellent little book 
as the Scripture Catechism. Its fulness and simplicity, and (what is 
rare) the aptness of the questions from the Bible, render the work 
very valuable." 



From the Baptist Guardian. 

" The plan of this work, as might be expected, is plain and practi- 
cal, and the execution of it admirably accomplished, so that this 
little volume embraces a large amount of scriptural truth. In short, 
this little book contains a system of theology in miniature. Besides 
subserving the purpose for which the author designed it, we hope to 
see it introduced into Sunday Schools. We know no text-book in 
theology, we can so confidently recommend for this purpose." 

Part of the edition is so bound as to be mailed. To persons send- 
ing us, by letter, 25 cents, we will send one copy ; one dollar, 6 copies. 

HARROLD & MURRAY. 

From Rev. J. B. Jeter^ Rich7no7id, Va. 

Messrs. Harrold ^ Murray^ — Having examined, with some cares 
the Scripture Catechism, I do not hesitate to pronounce it an excel- 
lent work, admirably adapted, not merely to the instruction of colored 
people, but of Bible Classes and Christians in general. The plan of 
the work I consider superior to that of any I have seen ; and nothing 
is needed but a knowledge of its advantages, to bring it into general 
circulation. — J. B. Jeter. 



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